Shooting Stars & Starlight

Hello everyone.

I've been inspired a bit lately by peoples' photographs of night skies. Some of the inspirational shots were at long exposures- like 2 hours or more. Recently, I was invited to spend a couple days with friends way up in Northern Pennsylvania. this is an area widely regarded as perhaps the darkest spot, definitely on the east cast and perhaps among the darkest couple places in all the United States.

My hopes were rewarded in an absolutely clear sky, in spite of previously dire predictions of near constant rain during the time of our visit! This was Sunday night, maybe the longest day of the year and elements of sunset lingered until maybe 10PM, with some light in the western sky for what seemed like forever. Finally, I carried the tripod out to the middle of our field, set my camera to "B", and opened the shutter. I set my watch for one hour and my buddy and I grabbed lawn chairs and tilted them back to view the stars and also watch satellites cruise across the sky, a modern phenom that I had not witnessed before.

Even without the excitement of making the shot, this was fantastic stuff, and it was both fun and pleasurable to simply sit there and watch the sky with millions and millions of stars. Picking out the satellites was great fun as well and together we marveled at how they whizzed across the sky in every direction possible.

To my dismay, however, after ending the exposure, I found my lens had some condensation on it! Not a lot, like it wasn't swimming in water, but surely enough to kill the shot! I was shooting film, so I won't know how bad it is until after I complete the roll and send it to the lab for processing.

BUT I'm wondering, because I totally hope to do this again- how long is necessary for a complete star shot, at minimum?

As and aside, I do understand that my stationary camera would result in recording movement of the earth, stars, constellations and satellites, with perhaps some blurring possible. I don't have any sort of "star tracker" device.

I also NOW understand that, not being in the desert, the likelihood of having to deal with dewfall is probably always going to be a problem or at the very least something to be aware of and to deal with.

Thanks in advance!

Tom

Welcome to stargazing, it will take you to some amazing places to enjoy dark skies.

For inspiration, check out NASA's Astronomy Picture of the Day site: apod.nasa.gov.

Other than long exposure star trails with film, digital is the best tool for capturing night skies. A starting point for exposure is F2.8, 30 secs, ISO 3200.

there's a rabbit hole at lonelyspec.com for gear discussions and digital techniques for night sky capture including post processing.

Re: dew on the lens, look for dew heater strips on the river site and there are inexpensive DIY solutions using some resistors and a battery. Cloudynights.com is a good site to find solutions used by telescope builders.