The Amateur Photographer

By Jason Mainville

As a beginner in the world of astrophotography I thought it would be fitting to explain some of the do's and do nots of night photography. Most of what you will see on this page are the do nots. As for some of the do's you can visit Local Astronomer Pierre Martin. Now on to some of the do not's. One of my largest setbacks is the inability to track the night sky while doing open exposures which is clearly visible in the following photo's. The inability to track is easily overcome with the assistance of a "barn door". A "barn door" is by far the most cost efficient method for tracking, although should you be blessed by owning a motor guided telescope by all means use the telescope. I will be posting the plans on how to build a "barn door" on this page in the near future.

What you will need

One of the first things you will need is of course a camera, be sure that the camera you have chosen has the capability of open exposure. On all of the cameras I have used you can identify this feature by looking at the dial or screen thatindicates the shutter speed and should be identified by the letter "B". One of my personal favorites is the Canon AE1 Program. The next choices is what lens you want to use. Now your choice of lens has many determining factors "do you want to take wide sky shots or something more pin point?" "do you want to take an open exposure for 1 minute or 1 hour" Regardless of the answer for the beginner I would suggest using the smallest lens possible ( no larger than 50mm ) On your lens nearest to the body of the camera you should see a series of numbers , for example on my 50mm Canon they are as fallows 1.8 2.8 4.0 5.6 8.0 11.0 16.0 22.0 this determines the "f" ratio the lower the number the more light grasping ability the lens has. A general rule of thumb is to use the lowest number available.

The next step is to choose what film is best for the pictures you want to take. Remember the lower the number ( 100 asa ) the slower the film , the higher the number ( 800 , 1600 , 3200 asa ) the faster the film. The fastest film I tend to use is the Kodak Gold 400 with various results to date. If you have a "barn door" as mentioned above, a 400 asa or even slower film can produce some fantastic results primarily due to the recent advancement in the film industry. Your local Photo Shop can help you figure out which film is right for you. Now that you have your ideal camera , lens , and film no matter how good they are you will never get any worth while results if you don't have a solid baseto mount them so please don't spare any expense when it comes to buying a tripod , video camera tripods I find work best for the one main reason that they were meant to hold steady quite a bit more weight. If in the future you decide to buy or build a "barn door" the extra weight capacity that the video camera tripods offer will have well worth the extra money.