Night Sky

I tried my first attempt at night sky photography on Sunday night.  The nice thing about digital is no burning film, sending it for developing and maybe 2-3 days later see your results. Even so, with digital you need to take some time to review the results.

That being said the results were underwhelming and somewhat disappointing.

I thought I had read enough, had enough notes, to start and get some decent beginner pictures. I had no idea how wrong I would be.

What did I get right? It was -5° F at 9:00 PM when I went out.  I was dressed warm enough.  It was only 3 days past a new moon.  Sky clear as a bell.  I did my research on the stars that were out the placement of the milky way (wasn't I overachieving?). Living in a rural area the light pollution would be less than if I was in the city.  There was still plenty of light bleed from the south and west.  Plus neighbors that have outside lighting doesn't help either.

Gear was good to go.  Camera, fresh battery, tripod, cable release, headlamp with red LED light, bag for all my stuff, notebook and pen....

For my first shots I was going to try a simple stack of pictures.  Set the cameras internal timer to take a 10 second exposure every 11 seconds for 20 pictures. I attempted to focus on Polaris, aka the North Star. Manual focus, because auto focus does not work real well in this situation.  My eyes were getting adjusted to the dark.  Hmm having a hard time seeing anything.  Hey lets try using live view.  Using the cameras monitor to focus.  Oh Jesus is that thing bright! Shit, off, off, turn it off!  Made a new note to turn down the brightness on the monitor when I do that again.  So much for adjusted eyes.  Back to manual focusing.  I can't see shit.  A combination of these contacts that are no good for close up and that its so cold my body heat is fogging the eyepiece when I get near it.  The lens I am using (35mm 1.8G) has no focus scale like older or newer more expensive ones. So I guess.  And I guess poorly.  Not knowing this I click the shutter and it goes to town. The program ends and I look at the results.   Damn, that screen is still way too bright!   Looks like a lot of nothing but I can't tell because my eyes just had gotten used to the dark again.

Next on the list is a long exposure of the same sky.  My notes say start at ISO 3200, 1.8 for 30 seconds or so.  The results?  A white out sepia toned image of nothing.  Wow.

Lets try the Southwest sky.  Orion is right overhead that direction.  My tripod won't aim as high as I need to, so I have to reverse the camera.  First shot ISO 3200, F1.8, 25 seconds. Manually focused. Near washout, but I can actually make out some blurry stars.  Second shot: ISO 3200 F1.8, 8.1 seconds.  Well this is better, still very warm and terribly blurry. Third shot: My 'Keeper' ISO800, F1.8 and 9 seconds.  Less washed out but of focus none the less.

I am getting closer but its getting cold.  Lets try another long exposure.  ISO 800 F1.8 4 minutes 30 seconds.  A blurry wash out.  Lets try one more for research purposes.   Super long for some cool star trails right?  I went back to center on Polaris, tried to focus poorly.  ISO 800, F1.8 10 minutes an 36 seconds.

What does one do for over ten minutes in the cold temps, go in the house?  No, I go traipsing off in the woods. Walk the deer trails, looks for antler sheds with my red LED headlamp lighting the way.  I found nothing but deer beds and poop, seems par for the night.

I go back to the camera in the middle of the yard.  Pack it up, go into the house.  It's 10 minutes to 10.  I was out there almost an hour in subzero temps and lesser windchills.  I undress and let my gear warm up.  Pull the memory card and take a closer look at my results.  As I had seen.  One after another of overexposed, blurry crap.

I already have a ton of things to fix:
1. Turn the monitor brightness all the way down BEFORE  I go ou
2. Drop The ISO (sensitivity)
3. Increase the F stop (aperture)
4. Work on focusing or use one of my lenses that has a scale on it
5. Wear glasses instead?
6. Turn off my headlamp BEFORE I trip the shutter
7. Adjust the white balance prior to shooting so to no be so warm in color
8. Use the eyepiece cover to stop any stray light to come in.
9. Read more
10. Use what I have as a bench mark of which way to go with my next shots.

Am I disappointed, sure.  Discouraged?  No.  I will be out there next month, near a new moon and try again.

My Orion Constellation Keeper.