Astrophotography
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About this ebook
Today's photographic equipment allows amateurs to take pictures of the stars that far surpass images taken just a few decades ago by even the largest observatories-and this book will teach you how.
Author and world-renowned astrophotographer Thierry Legault teaches the art and techniques of astrophotography: from simple camera-on-tripod night-scene imaging of constellations, star trails, eclipses, artificial satellites, and polar auroras to more intensive astrophotography using specialized equipment for lunar, planetary, solar, and deep-sky imaging. Legault shares advice on equipment and guides you through techniques to capture and process your images to achieve spectacular results.
Astrophotography provides the most thorough treatment of the topic available. This large-format, richly illustrated book is intended for all sky enthusiasts-newcomers and veterans alike.
Learn how to:
- Select the most useful equipment: cameras, adapters, filters, focal reducers/extenders, field correctors, and guide telescopes
- Set up your camera (digital, video, or CCD) and your lens or telescope for optimal results
- Plan your observing sessions
- Mount the camera on your telescope and focus it for razor-sharp images
- Polar-align your equatorial mount and improve tracking for pin-point star images
- Make celestial time-lapse videos
- Calculate the shooting parameters: focal length and ratio, field of view, exposure time, etc.
- Combine multiples exposures to reveal faint galaxies, nebulae details, elusive planetary structures, and tiny lunar craters
- Adjust contrast, brightness, light curves, and colors
- Postprocess your images to fix defects such as vignetting, dust shadows, hot pixels, uneven background, and noise
- Identify problems with your images and improve your results
Thierry Legault
Thierry Legault is a world-renowned astrophotographer. In 1999, Legault received the prestigious Marius Jacquemetton prize from the Societe Astronomique de France for his astronomical photographs. He is so highly regarded in this industry that the International Astronomical Union officially bestowed the name Legault on asteroid #19458. Legault co-authored the book New Atlas of the Moon (Firefly, 2006) and has written numerous articles about astrophotography for French and American magazines. He regularly presents courses and gives astrophotography lectures in Europe, America, and Asia. Legault's images, most notably those of the International Space Station, have been published and broadcast worldwide (including NASA publications, Nature, Scientific American, The Times, The Wall Street Journal, Popular Science, Aviation Week, Discovery Channel, BBC, CNN, ABC, CBS, Fox, CBC, and MSNBC). Thierry earns his living as an engineer and is currently living in the suburbs of Paris, France. For more information see www.astrophoto.fr.
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Reviews for Astrophotography
4 ratings1 review
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5This is a brilliant book and, is indispensable for any one who is serious about astro photography. This goes way beyond merely photographing the night sky. that too, is an art. However, what I like about the book, is that he has combined the science and the art in a manner that is extremely approachable. It is an excellent book, and is something that anyone who is serious about this realm of photography must read.
Book preview
Astrophotography - Thierry Legault
Thierry Legault is a world-renowned astrophotographer. In 1999, Legault received the prestigious Marius Jacquemetton prize from the Societe Astronomique de France for his astronomical photographs. He is so highly regarded in this industry that the International Astronomical Union officially bestowed the name Legault on asteroid #19458.
Legault co-authored the book New Atlas of the Moon (Firefly, 2006) and has written numerous articles about astrophotography for French and American magazines. He regularly presents courses and gives astrophotography lectures in Europe, America, and Asia.
Legault’s images, most notably those of the International Space Station, have been published and broadcast worldwide, including in NASA publications, Nature, Scientific American, The Times, The Wall Street Journal, Popular Science, Aviation Week, as well as on numerous television stations including The Discovery Channel, BBC, CNN, ABC, CBS, Fox, CBC, and MSNBC.
Thierry earns his living as an engineer and is currently living in the suburbs of Paris, France.
For more information visit www.astrophoto.fr
Astrophotography
Thierry Legault
Editor: Joan Dixon
Translation: Alan Holmes and Thierry Legault
Copy editor: Judy Flynn
Layout: Petra Strauch
Cover Design: Helmut Kraus, www.exclam.de
Printer: Friesens Corporation
Printed in Canada
ISBN: 978-1-937538-43-9
1st Edition 2014
© 2014 Thierry Legault
Rocky Nook, Inc.
802 E. Cota Street, 3rd Floor
Santa Barbara, CA 93103
www.rockynook.com
Original French title: Astrophotographie, 2nd Edition
© 2013 Groupe Eyrolles, Paris, France
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Legault, Thierry, author.
Astrophotography / by Thierry Legault. -- 1st ed.
pages cm
ISBN 978-1-937538-43-9 (softcover : alk. paper)
1. Astronomical photography. 2. Photography--Digital techniques. I. Title.
QB121.L44 2014
522’.63--dc23
2013040681
Distributed by O’Reilly Media
1005 Gravenstein Highway North
Sebastopol, CA 95472
All rights reserved. No part of the material protected by this copyright notice may be reproduced or utilized in any form, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without written permission of the publisher.
Many of the designations in this book used by manufacturers and sellers to distinguish their products are claimed as trademarks of their respective companies. Where those designations appear in this book, and Rocky Nook was aware of a trademark claim, the designations have been printed in caps or initial caps. All product names and services identified throughout this book are used in editorial fashion only and for the benefit of such companies with no intention of infringement of the trademark. They are not intended to convey endorsement or other affiliation with this book.
While reasonable care has been exercised in the preparation of this book, the publisher and author assume no responsibility for errors or omissions, or for damages resulting from the use of the information contained herein or from the use of the discs or programs that may accompany it.
This book is printed on acid-free paper.
All astronomical images in the book are by Thierry Legault and may not be reproduced without the author’s express written premission.
Acknowledgements
I wish to thank Alan Holmes at Santa Barbara Instrument Group (SBIG) for his generous and essential help with translating this manuscript from French to English. Thanks also to Michael Barber and Alan at SBIG for their pivotal contribution in initiating my contact with Rocky Nook publishing and facilitating further discussions.
I would like to thank Rocky Nook Publishing, and especially Joan Dixon, for their confidence in this book and their commitment to seeing it through to publication. I appreciate the excellent job they have done with the new layout and preparation of the manuscript.
I also would like to thank Arnaud Frich for proposing the idea of this book to me and to Eyrolles [the publisher of the original French edition], and for his valuable assistance in acquiring the photographs of astronomical equipment presented here. I further thank Eyrolles for offering me the opportunity to achieve this idea with total freedom in my choice of design and content. I especially thank my editor, Stéphanie Poisson, for her patience, kindness, guidance, and careful proofreading.
I must mention the pioneers of film and digital astrophotography, those for whom boundaries were made to be overcome, particularly Jean Dragesco, Christian Arsidi, Gérard Thérin, Christian Viladrich, Donald Parker, Robert Gendler, and Damian Peach. The authors who passed on to me the desire to observe and photograph the sky, including Pierre Bourge, Jean Dragesco, Serge Brunier, Patrick Martinez, and Guillaume Cannat, also were essential to my success in astrophotography.
I owe a debt of gratitude to all the software developers and webmasters who have given us the means to plan our imaging sessions and to make the most of our images, in particular Arnold Barmettler (CalSky), Chris Peat (Heavens-Above), Tony Philips (spaceweather.com), Christian Buil (IRIS), Cyril Cavadore (PRISM), and Jean-Philippe Cazard (Astrosurf). I owe special thanks to Christian Buil, who gave me the desire to get into digital photography and helped me succeed through his CCD cameras, software, and writings that have taught me so much.
I also thank the many distributors who have put their equipment at my disposal for the photographs in this book: Médas Instruments (Vichy, France), Optique Unterlinden (Colmar, France), and La Maison de l’Astronomie (Paris, France). I thank Rémi Petitdemange and Richard Galli (Optique Unterlinden), Thomas Maquaire (Nikon France), Vincent Hamel (Meade France), Scott Roberts (Explore Scientific), Corey Lee and Bryan Cogdell (Celestron), and Nick Hudson (True Technology Ltd).
I must acknowledge the contribution of my course trainees and all amateurs who, with their relevant questions over the years, helped me to compose this book so that the answers flow as clearly as possible. I also thank all the amateurs who have given me words of encouragement online and during conferences, meetings, and workshops.
Many people from all around the world have helped me photograph celestial wonders, especially François Colas, Jean-Luc Dauvergne, and the staff of the Kennedy Space Center. I have been helped by many people and organizations who aided my quest to photograph the southern sky and several total eclipses under the best conditions, particularly Serge Koutchmy, Jaime Vilinga, the Ministry of Research and Technology of Angola, and the University of Luanda, as well as all those who warmly welcomed us in Tchivinguiro, Angola.
Table of Contents
Acknowledgements
Foreword
How to Read This Book
Chapter 1
Astrophotography without a Telescope
Cameras and Settings
Camera Mounts and Settings
Astronomical Subjects
Planetary Conjunctions
Constellations and the Milky Way
Comets
Star Trails
Meteors
Zodiacal Light
Polar Auroras
Lunar and Solar Eclipses
Artificial Satellites
Processing and Touch-Ups
Creating Panoramas and Mosaics
Making Time-Lapse Movies
Chapter 2
Cameras for Astrophotography
The Sensor
Sensor Structure
Image Acquisition
Exposure Phase
Reading and Digitization Phase
Quantum Efficiency and Spectral Sensitivity
Color Sensors
Types of Cameras
CCD Cameras
Consumer Digital Cameras
Astronomical Video Cameras
Computers
Chapter 3
Image Calibration and Compositing
The Components of an Image
The Thermal Signal
The Bias Signal
Uniformity Defects
The Causes and Properties of Uniformity Defects
Calibration of an Image
Correction of the Thermal Signal
Correction of the Uniformity Defects
Image Calibration
Noise and Its Reduction
The Sources of Noise
Photosite Size and Image Quality
Improving the Signal-to-Noise Ratio
Compositing Methods
Compositing by Sum and Median
Reduction of Noise on a Single Image
Advice for Image Calibration
Chapter 4
Using Your Equipment
Attaching the Camera to the Telescope
Piggyback Attachment
Prime Focus Attachment
Increasing the Focal Length
Use of Focal Reducers
Afocal Attachments
Attaching a Photographic Lens to a Camera
Calculating the Field and Pixel Resolution
Calculating the Field of an Image
Calculating the Sampling and Size of Objects
Telescope Collimation
Tips for a Good Collimation
What Adjustment for What Telescope?
Focusing
Focusing Tolerances
Focusing Systems
Tips and Tricks for Good Focusing
Chapter 5
The Planets and the Moon
Telescopes and Resolution
What Are the Limits of Resolution?
Telescopes for Planetary Imaging
Chromatic Aberration
The Effect of a Central Obstruction
Collimation
Mounts and Tracking
The Atmosphere
Cameras and Settings
Focal Length and Sampling
Image Capture at the Telescope
Processing the Images
Select and Stack the Best Images
Calibrating, Registering, and Combining Images
Enhancement of Details
Color Adjustment
Animations
Stereo Images
The Purpose of Image Processing
The Planets and Their Satellites
Mercury
Venus
Mars
Jupiter
Saturn
Uranus and Neptune
The Satellites of the Planets
Photography of the Moon
Lunar Close-Ups
The Peculiar Movement of the Moon
Photographing the Whole Lunar Disk
The Earthshine
Lunar Eclipses
Lunar Occultations
The ISS
Chapter 6
The Sun
The Sun in Broadband Light
Using Broadband Filters
Cameras, Imaging, and Processing
The Sun in Hα
The Hα Interference Filter
The Calcium K Filter
Cameras, Imaging, and Processing
Solar Eclipses
Solar Transits
The Characteristics of a Solar Transit
Equipment and Settings
Chapter 7
Imaging Deep-Sky Objects
Telescopes for Deep-Sky Photography
Focal Length and Focal Ratio
Field Coverage
Collimation
Mounts for Deep-Sky Imaging
Fixed Mounts
Motorized Alt-Az Mounts
Motorized Equatorial Mounts
Polar Alignment
Using a Polar Finder
Computerized Polar Alignment
Alignment with the Telescope Finder
Refining the Polar Alignment
Tracking Errors
Periodic Drive Errors
The Other Tracking Errors
Guiding the Exposure
Parallel Guiding
Off-Axis Guiding
Deep-Sky Objects
Stars
Diffuse Nebulae
Planetary Nebulae
Galaxies
Comets
Asteroids
The Atmosphere
Color, Black and White, and Filters
Broadband Filters
Narrowband Filters
Light-Pollution Filters
DSLRs: Infrared-Blocking Filters and H-Alpha
Selecting and Setting the Camera
DSLR or CCD Camera?
What Exposure Time?
The Other Settings
Finding Objects
Centering with a Finder
Imaging
Preparing for the Imaging Session
The Dithering Technique
Processing the Images
Gradient Removal
Levels and Curves
Improving Sharpness
Noise Reduction
Cosmetic Touch-Up
Mosaics
Color Processing
Processing the Colors of Stars and Galaxies Photographed with a Color Sensor
Processing the Colors of Stars and Galaxies Photographed with a Monochrome Sensor and LRGB Filters
Processing the Colors of Emission Nebulae Photographed with a Color Sensor
Processing the Colors of Emission Nebulae Photographed with a Monochrome Sensor Using RGB or Narrowband Filters
Appendices
Appendix 1:
File Formats and Operations
Common File Formats
Displaying Images
Common Operations on Images
Appendix 2:
Astronomical Cameras and Software
Video and CCD Cameras
Filters and Photographic Accessories
Astronomical Software
Appendix 3:
From the Sensor to the Image
Readout of the Image
Obtaining a Color Image
Black-and-White Mode with a Color Camera
Appendix 4:
Uniformity Defects—Causes and Remedies
Vignetting
Dust
Appendix 5:
Checking and Adjusting an Equatorial Mount
Measuring the Periodic Error
Adjusting the Mount
Appendix 6:
Making Eclipse Sequences
Preparing for Imaging
Assembling the Frames
Appendix 7:
Optimizing the Camera Settings
Optimum Individual Exposure Duration for Deep-Sky Imaging
Optimal DSLR Deep-Sky ISO Setting
White Balance Coefficients Applicable to DSLR (RAW) and RGB Imaging
Appendix 8:
Meteor Showers
Foreword
Look upward on a hot summer night. The stars are right there, at your fingertips, just waiting to be photographed. Find a spot away from the city lights, set up your camera on a tripod, adjust the zoom to the wide-angle position, choose a constellation, or just aim randomly toward the Milky Way. Focus manually, and start a 20-second exposure. Congratulations, you just captured your first astronomical photograph! If you enjoyed the challenge and want to go further, this book is written for you. It is also for those who are disappointed in their results and want to learn how to improve.
The book you are holding in your hand contains most of what I experienced and learned over a period of more than 20 years using telescopes, digital cameras, CCD cameras, video cameras, and software of all kinds. After deciding that the advent of digital sensors marked the beginning of a new era in amateur astronomy, I bought my first CCD camera in 1993. It is with the same enthusiasm that I continue to photograph the night sky in all its facets today. One can say that the digital revolution has kept its promise: the results achieved by many amateurs today exceed the best results of the greatest observatories a generation ago.
Do not be intimidated by the number of pages in this book. It is due to the scope of the topic and the wide variety of celestial objects available to photograph. You cannot photograph a galaxy in the same manner that you would a planet or an eclipse. Focal lengths used to photograph the entire celestial sphere (page 9) and Saturn (page 80) differ by a factor of more than a thousand! In addition, a wide variety of imaging equipment is now available, and it is necessary to discuss all the types of gear commonly used in astrophotography. For example, the explanation in chapter 5 about the advantages and disadvantages of refractors doesn’t apply to you if you own a Newtonian telescope—unless you decide, after reading these pages, to change your setup!
Astrophotography can also be practiced in broad daylight, and even in the presence of clouds, as was the case for this close approach of the moon and Venus on June 18, 2007
I designed this book to make it as complete and self-sufficient as possible. However, this is not a course in digital photography, computers, or general astronomy, and reading some additional resources about those subjects may therefore be useful. Anyway, you do not need to be a computer whiz or an optical scientist to capture beautiful pictures; astrophotography is within the reach of all. Nevertheless, this book does not claim that by waving a magic wand you’ll get images anywhere similar to those found in astronomical magazines and books. Some subjects are easy to photograph and require little equipment, while others require complex and expensive gear. Above all, beyond the hardware and software aspects of imaging, do not forget a vital link in the chain of imaging: you. Take your time! In many respects, astrophotography can be compared to learning a musical instrument; both require a bit of practice and perseverance, plus a touch of curiosity and common sense. How many times have we seen amateurs fall victim to the horseman syndrome—when I fall it’s always because of my horse
—and endlessly buy larger, heavier, more expensive, and in theory, more powerful equipment, mistakenly thinking that the new items would produce better results than what they had obtained using a telescope or a camera that they had not taken sufficient time to master?
This black-and-white image of the Ring Nebula in Lyra is of particular importance to me. After several nights with unconvincing results, it was my first presentable deep-sky image, made with a CCD camera and an 11″ Schmidt-Cassegrain telescope in the spring of 1994. It was this image that encouraged me to persevere in astrophotography.
The southern Milky Way, photographed with a DSLR, crosses the beautiful constellations of the Southern Cross, Centaurus, and Carina
The galaxy NGC 5128 (Centaurus A), photographed with a CCD camera and a 4″ refractor using the techniques described in chapter 7
You will not find here an exhaustive overview or detailed user manual for all hardware and software available for this market. Since these products are becoming more numerous every day, and are constantly evolving, this book could not go into such details without becoming quickly obsolete. When I do mention particular brands or refer to a product, it is usually to highlight the special features they offer. But if I don’t mention a specific instrument, camera, or software package by brand, it doesn’t mean that I don’t recommend them or that they not useful. Instead, I attempted here to present the basic concepts and outline the general techniques you’ll need tonight, or in 10 years, as well as solutions to small problems you will inevitably encounter in the development of your skills, whether on the first or the hundredth evening spent capturing astroimages. If there is a hundredth! You have every right to practice astrophotography only two nights a year, during your vacation. In this case, your requirements and technical resources will certainly not be comparable to those of an avid enthusiast who spends several nights a month pursuing the best possible result.
Armed with the basics found in this book, you’ll be able to determine the gear most suited to your needs, your requirements, and your budget from the manufacturers’ offerings, and you will be able to distinguish between marketing hype and real quality. You’ll also be able to properly implement the image-processing techniques discussed in this book with whatever software package you have chosen.
Discover and experience astrophotography at your own pace and with the equipment you already have; don’t try to apply all the techniques described in this book on the first day, and don’t rush out to buy all the equipment mentioned here. Simply look for the answers to your questions as they arise.
I also hope this book helps to refine your vision so that you can identify excellence, on your photographs or those of others, and more important, so you identify areas that need improvement and how to achieve better results. However, we should keep in mind that a result can’t be properly assessed without considering the power of the equipment used, and the experience of the imager.
I attempt to explain, as much as I can, the reasons behind some techniques. Recipes applied blindly seldom produce good results, which is particularly true in astrophotography where each situation is unique. I tried to keep the book at a modest mathematical and technical level, avoiding complex formulas; we will not go further than the square root. Above all, I focused on core concepts and essential techniques, those that have proven themselves and demonstrated their effectiveness in the field; I deliberately ignored techniques with doubtful practical utility. So, I did not try to describe all of the imaginable processing methods. I focused only on those that improve the astronomical photographs in a tangible way.
Finally, this book is primarily about imaging and processing photographs taken for aesthetic purposes, commonly called pretty pictures,
and that’s a wide-ranging subject! The use of images for measuring physical phenomena or for scientific research is so vast and exciting that another entire book should be dedicated to it (see the sidebar on the next page).
Thanks to the dazzling progress in the power of modern cameras and equipment, astrophotography has never been easier than it is today. May this book help you to participate in this exciting technological leap!
The Iris Gulf, photographed using an astronomical video camera on a 14″ telescope, using the techniques described in chapter 5
How to Read This Book
As an introduction to astrophotography and imaging of the night sky, begin by reading chapter 1. It will outline how to capture pictures of celestial objects and phenomena visible with your unaided eye using only a simple camera.
To understand the different types of cameras used in astronomy and their most important characteristics, similarities, and differences, please read chapter 2. In its wake, chapter 3 explains the fundamental techniques useful for correcting the unavoidable artifacts found in RAW images produced by your camera.
Chapter 4 describes general techniques, such as focusing, that will be useful for all types of astronomical targets when you’re using cameras and telescopes.
If you have a telescope, are considering acquiring one, or are already dabbling in astrophotography and want to improve your results, in chapter 5 you will find a description of the photography of planets and the moon. Chapter 6 is dedicated to solar photography and relies heavily on techniques learned in chapter 5. Lastly, imaging comets, asteroids, stars, nebulae, and galaxies is discussed in chapter 7.
A STEP TOWARD SCIENCE
You might ask, Why bother photographing the sky as an amateur, considering the extraordinary photographs of planets, nebulae, and galaxies taken by major professional telescopes and space probes that are available at a multitude of websites and astronomical publications?
Part of the answer to this question lies in the desire to get our own pictures of the stars: after all, most of the tourists who visit the Egyptian pyramids, Niagara Falls, or the Great Wall of China also take photographs, even though these sites have already been photographed millions of times, with beautiful tomes devoted to them. The pleasure of photographing the sky is a natural progression from the visual observation of the night sky, especially since long-exposure photography offers infinitely more profound and colorful views of faint objects such as nebulae and galaxies.
Above all, many types of phenomena constantly occur in the sky. When we are amazed by an event such as a meteor shower, an eclipse, the emergence of a giant sunspot, a solar flare, or the display of a beautiful comet, photographing it is a way to retain that memory and share it with others who did not experience it.
In addition, it is entirely possible to go beyond the purely aesthetic aspect of astrophotography and use images of celestial bodies to study their behavior and deduce the physical mechanisms that govern them, or even reveal new insights. In some cases, advanced amateurs can do useful work assisting professionals who, while certainly having more sophisticated means and deeper skills, are so few that it is impossible for them to perform a complete survey of a celestial object or to continuously monitor it. The potential topics of study are numerous, most requiring no technical or scientific knowledge of imaging beyond what is described in this book. Astronomical software is available to help with the analysis. There is software for measuring stellar brightness (photometry), for calculating positions and trajectories (astrometry), and for unscrambling their spectral lines (spectroscopy). Here are some of the most common scientific topics:
• Searching for novae and supernovae and monitoring their brightness variations
• Monitoring brightness variations of variable stars, including the search for extra-solar planets
• Searching for new asteroids or comets, and determining their orbits
• Determining the shape and rotation period of asteroids from their brightness variations or stellar occultation measurements
• Determining the chemical composition of stars and comets and ascertaining certain physical characteristics, such as speed and temperature
• Monitoring the atmospheric activity of the major planets, including recording the evolution of Jupiter’s cloud bands and hurricanes, seasonal cyclones on Saturn, huge dust storms and changes in the polar ice caps on Mars
• Monitoring solar activity
Star trails centered on the celestial equator, taken from austral Africa (Angola) with a DSLR equipped with a 16mm wide-angle lens. The photograph was taken in the easterly direction; the stars are rising and they are rotating around the celestial north pole (right side of the image) and around the south pole (left side, below the horizon). The glow in the center of the image is neither dawn nor light pollution but rather the zodiacal light.
Chapter 1
Astrophotography without a Telescope
Owning an astronomical telescope—a refractor or a reflector—is not essential to photographing the sky. The most beautiful celestial sights that are visible to the unaided eye can be imaged with the same digital camera you use to photograph friends and family.
Compact, intermediate, and DSLR cameras (top to bottom). Intermediate cameras fall somewhere between the other two categories; they have a fixed lens but offer more manual control than compact cameras.
The celestial bodies and astronomical events that are within reach of a digital camera on a tripod are numerous: constellations, star trails, planetary conjunctions, lunar crescents and earthshine, meteors, and even artificial satellites. Also, for the fortunate or traveling amateur, the zodiacal light, auroras, and lunar or solar eclipses can be photographed. It is an ideal way for sky watchers and beginning astrophotographers to become familiar with using their camera in nighttime conditions or for skilled astrophotographers to obtain magnificent photographs of celestial sights that can be seen by the unaided eye.
Of course, not all celestial objects are within reach of digital single lens reflex (DSLR) cameras. Detailed views of the planets, sun, moon, galaxies, and nebulae require an astronomical telescope with a motorized mount, as we will see in later chapters. Also, the long exposures required by subjects like star trails and meteors are limited to the most capable and versatile of all digital cameras: the DSLR.
Cameras and Settings
Digital cameras can be classified in two large categories: compact and single lens reflex (SLR) designs. Cameras in the first group usually have a nonremovable zoom lens. Cameras in the second group allow you to view the scene through a removable lens and offer more sophisticated functions (that are not always useful for astrophotography) and better image quality. Because smartphones have a fixed lens, a small sensor, and automatic modes, they fall in the compact category.
Among the numerous camera functions, one of the most important is the exposure mode. In astrophotography there is no need for complex modes and expert programs. Only one mode is essential: manual. Astrophotographers need to freely choose the exposure time and lens aperture because automatic settings are seldom reliable when it comes to photographing small or faint celestial bodies. Manual exposure mode is available on all DSLR cameras but unfortunately not on all compact cameras. However, on some compact cameras, preprogrammed modes with names like night scene or starry sky will help when you take pictures with an exposure time of several seconds at full aperture. The quality of such shots taken with a compact camera is understandably not as good as the quality of those from a DSLR.
Another advantage of a DSLR over a compact camera is its ability to have the autofocus function disabled so you can focus manually. You can try automatic focusing by carefully centering a bright star or a planet in the focus reticle, but don’t expect a good result since most cameras do not lock focus on such targets. It is wise to check the sharpness of the resulting shot on the LCD screen of your camera by enlarging it as much as possible. It is often necessary to switch to manual focusing and find the correct focal setting by trial and error. If your DSLR has a live-view mode, don’t hesitate to use it at maximum enlargement because it is much more precise than focusing through the viewfinder. On most interchangeable lenses, there is a mark for infinity on the distance scale, but the precision of this mark is seldom good enough for critical focusing. On most compact cameras, manual focusing is not available, but night scene modes automatically focus at infinity.
APERTURE, DIAPHRAGM, AND F-STOP
On a telescope or lens, the aperture is the diameter of the opening (entrance pupil), which determines the amount of light the system collects. Unlike astronomical telescopes, photographic lenses incorporate a set of blades, called an iris diaphragm, that adjusts the aperture, much like the iris in your eye. On a lens, an aperture setting (called an f-stop) is usually represented by the ratio of the focal length to the diameter of the diaphragm. A smaller f-stop value corresponds to a larger aperture. A lens is commonly identified by its focal length and its full-aperture f-stop. For example, the Nikon 24mm f/2.8D lens offers the following f-stops: f/2.8, f/4, f/5.6, f/8, f/11, f/16, and f/22. On zoom lenses the maximum aperture may remain constant or change from one end of the focal range to the other. Note that the ratio between two successive f-stops is 1:1.4, but the quantity of light that passes through the diaphragm varies by a factor of two from one f-stop to the next (the square of 1.4). In astronomy, where light is never excessive, photographers often prefer the full-aperture setting. However, the optical quality of less-expensive lenses may not be good at this setting, so it helps to close down the diaphragm by one to two stops.
The exposure time (also called shutter speed) is the period of time when the light is allowed to hit the sensor. Fainter scenes require longer exposure times. For astrophotography the exposure time can range from 1/8000 second to several minutes.
When selecting a camera, it’s important to pay attention to the longest exposure time available. Unlike DSLRs, which allow for unlimited exposure times, most compact cameras do not allow exposures longer than 30 seconds. For some compact cameras the limit is even lower—only a few seconds. Therefore, it is not possible to photograph subjects that need exposures of several minutes, like star trails or meteors, with these cameras. On compact cameras, the reason for this limitation is technological; exposures longer than several seconds result in very poor, probably unusable, images.
On a DSLR, exposures longer than 30 seconds are possible with the B (bulb) setting
A full-aperture f-stop (for example, f/1.4 or f/2 for a fixed focal-length lens or f/2.8 for a zoom lens)—which is referred to as fast lens—is an advantage for most astronomical subjects because they are so faint. On compact cameras, only optical zoom settings are useful. Digital zoom simply crops the central area of the image, with no increased detail, so this function is useless because you can just as easily crop the image later on a computer. Don’t overlook fixed focal-length lenses for DSLRs, even if zoom lenses seem more useful. Fixed focal-length lenses often have a smaller full-aperture f-stop (equating to a larger aperture opening) and better image quality at the edges. For example, an ordinary 50mm lens can perform well and is reasonably priced. Similarly, Samyang manual lenses have an excellent price-to-performance ratio, and the lack of autofocus is not a problem in astronomy. The websites LensTip (www.lenstip.com) and photozone (www.photozone.de) have detailed reviews of many lenses.
Mirrorless interchangeable lens cameras (MILCs), sometimes referred to as hybrids, were the most recent to appear on the market. They share many advantages of an SLR: interchangeable lenses (though with fewer options), manual mode, and long exposure times. Many MILCs don’t have a viewfinder, but that is not a prohibitive limitation for astrophotography. Entry-level MILCs have a sensor that is barely larger than sensors in compacts, so for long exposures, the MILCs with a large sensor (APS-C) are more appropriate. Before you buy an MILC, make sure you can use a remote control to start and stop exposures.
Photographing most of the astronomical subjects listed in the rest of this chapter requires a wide-angle lens (short focal length), with the exception of eclipses, which benefit from telephoto lenses with a long focal length. Good all-purpose wide-angle lenses for wide-field astrophotography have focal lengths from 10mm to 16mm and are designed for an APS-C sensor, such as the affordable 16mm f/2.8 Zenitar, 14mm f/2.8 Samyang, and 11–16mm f/2.8 Tokina. It is useful to estimate the angular field covered by the lens, to ensure that all objects will be included in the image, or to determine the best focal length depending on the circumstances. The table below lists the field of view, along the length and width of the sensor, for several common focal lengths and sensor sizes.
The LCD screen on this compact camera shows all the essential settings for astrophotography (here colored in yellow):
• Flash: Disabled
• Focus: Infinity (∞ icon)
• Self-timer: Activated
• Exposure mode: Manual (M icon)
• Color balance: Daylight (sun icon)
The angle of view depends only on the focal length and the size of the sensor. The first few rows correspond to wide-angle lenses, the last ones to telephoto lenses. The second column pertains to DSLRs with a 24 × 36mm sensor (sometimes called full-frame DSLRs) and compact and intermediate cameras whose focal lengths are usually given in terms of a 24 × 36mm equivalent, even if their sensors are much smaller. (The equivalent indicates the focal length that should be used with a 24 × 36mm sensor to obtain the same field of view. For example, the zoom