Yesterday we had another excellent lecture from Chris Livingstone (of Livingstone Telescopes in Worcester), this time recounting several trips he has made to Namibia, and showing us some excellent slides of astronomical photographs he has taken of the southern skies.
Personally I was amazed at the breathtaking images that are possible with a 50mm lens on a standard SLR camera and a home built Scotch mount constructed from a few scraps of wood!
In the Introductory course to Astronomy run by Richard Hendy we were shown a Scotch mount, and I have started to build my own out of interest, but I doubt I would have the patience to crank the handle at just the right speed for several minutes
Chris also gave us some excellent tips, in particular the idea of using a blackout cloth over the camera lens. Even remote shutter releases can induce some shake int he camera, so by using a fabric cover over the lens the shutter can be opened and the dark fabric can be removed from the lens once all camera shake has subsided. The same can be done when closing the shutter. I feel inspired to try harder
Chris's tales of Black Backed Jackals reminds me of one of my early attempts to take some astronomical images under dark skies. I had the opportunity to spend some time in the Utah Desert, in particular Bryce Canyon.
My results were less than ideal though...despite the darkest skies I had ever seen, the news that mountain lions had been seen in the area recently meant that I wasn't brave enough to stay outside alone for very long
Redditch Astronomy Society
No comments:
Post a Comment