Striking images can be made with amateur equipment. Here are some tips for competing with the specialists.
Astrophotography requires patience, some knowledge and some equipment. For example, it is essential to equip yourself with a “real” camera, capable of switching from an automatic mode to a manual mode, and equipped, inside the case, with a sighting mirror system. These devices are called reflex. “If they are not too old, all SLRs can take good photos of the sky, explains Thierry Legault, astrophotographer and author of the book The secrets of astrophotography (ed. Eyrolles, 2021).
But there’s no need to put too much money in the camera: it’s the lenses that count.” An entry-level lens, even second-hand, may suffice: a 200 or 300 mm zoom to photograph the Moon, for example, and a very wide angle (14, 20 or 24 mm) in order to take landscapes and Milky Way. “On the other hand, for the lens to capture a maximum of light, its aperture capacity must be as large as possible”, continues the photographer. In the characteristics of the optics, locate the small “f” and check that it is less than 3.5. Finally, disable autofocus: in these low light conditions, the camera will not be able to focus on its own. The only correct method is to turn the ring by hand to get sharp photos.
Guaranteed effect with a Moon Rosary
Earth’s primary satellite is the most natural subject for all astrophotographers, beginners or advanced. It can even be photographed in town! To make a rosary of Lune, the device must be fixed, so that the images are perfectly superimposable. Then, so that the spaces between each Moon are the same, it is necessary to take the photos at regular intervals. You can also machine-gun and then choose the shots that best correspond to the desired pattern. Be careful, this star moves by its own diameter in just two minutes! For this moonrise crossing a cloud, the photographer gradually reduced the aperture time to avoid overexposure and then, during editing, selected an image every 140 seconds. This last step requires image processing software (Photoshop, Lightroom…).
The trail of stars makes you dizzy
By turning on itself, the Terre causes an apparent movement of rotation of the celestial vault around a central axis. However, it is impossible to achieve this image in a single shot: with an exposure time of several hours, the photo would be all white. “For this type of shot, the trick is to take dozens, even hundreds of photos of a maximum of 30 seconds each, and this for several hours, explains Thierry Legault. All that remains is to stack them in image processing software to achieve this result.” Taken in England, this view is thus a juxtaposition of 200 shots.
Trigger at the right time for shooting stars
If photographing a shooting star isn’t difficult, but it takes patience to capture one. To increase your chances, it is recommended to aim for a place in the sky and to photograph this sector relentlessly with fairly long exposure times (more than twenty seconds).
The next day, check all your photos carefully, perhaps you will have immortalized a shooting star without knowing it! If these phenomena occur all year round, certain periods are more propitious: prefer the months of August (swarm of Perseids), October (Orionids) and January (Quadrantids). Finally, to give a little relief to your images of the sky, consider including an element of the landscape: a church, a rock, a tree or a mill.
To avoid blurry images
Because astrophotography requires exposure times of several seconds, your camera should be fixed on a tripod in order to be perfectly stable and avoid blurry images. A wire trigger also means you don’t have to press the button, which always risks moving the camera.
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