Sky Watch: Photographing the heavens

If you can see it, you can photograph it.

This is Mammana's First Law of Night Sky Photography, and all of my workshop participants know it by heart.

When someone reports having seen a marvelous halo around the moon or the Milky Way rising over a distant hillside, I always ask the same question: "Did you take a picture of it?" Often this is met with a puzzled reaction. "I didn't think I could. I mean, I don't have any fancy equipment or anything."

The fact is you don't need fancy equipment. Just visit my Facebook gallery (www.facebook.com/dennismammana) or my Night Sky Photography Group (www.facebook.com/groups/nightskyphotography), and you'll see what I mean. Now, granted, I've been doing this for a long time, but nearly every shot there was taken with little more than a basic camera and a tripod.

This brings me to another of Mammana's Laws: "It's not the camera that creates the photo, it's the photographer." If you've got a good eye, even the simplest of equipment will capture amazing images of celestial subjects, even at the most unexpected times.

Take for example the first of the accompanying images. Under a dark desert sky, I used one of the many metal sculptures around our community to shoot a silhouette with the Milky Way streaming beautifully behind it. Nothing fancy; the lens was focused on infinity, the exposure was only 15 seconds at f/2.8, and the camera's ISO was set to 2500.

Now if you want to create one of those fantastic star trail photos, where the stars swirl around a central point -- along with a few airplane trails -- well, that's easy too ... if you have a camera remote control that can be locked down along with a willingness to do some computer processing.

Aim your camera northward and experiment to determine good settings for the starry scene, and set your camera there. Then, with your camera set to continuous shooting mode, lock the release down and the camera will capture image after image after image after image. For example, I shot the accompanying star trail photo under a little moonlight; it's composed of 250 single shots, each at 13 seconds, f/2.8 and ISO 400.

When you load your photos into your computer, you can quickly assemble the series into a beautiful star trail image with free software such as Startrails for PC or StarStax for PC and Mac.

The great thing about capturing a series of images like this is that you cannot only make start trails, but also a time-lapse video (with Startrails). And that's one very cool feature!

Now if you'd like to be inspired by some of the most amazing night sky photos shot with only a camera and tripod, visit my TWAN colleagues and me at our website. And if you'd like me to present one of my popular night sky photography workshops in your area, please drop me a note.

Oh, and one more of Mammana's Laws: "Taking a photo of the night sky is easy. Taking a great one requires practice." Now that summertime is upon us, you've got no excuse. Get out there and practice!