My story
People who know me probably know that I have been very obsessed with anything that goes on above our heads. To me, the night sky is pretty much the most beautiful natural thing the human eye will ever get to see. If ever in your life you get the chance to travel to an area where there is little to no light pollution on a clear night during new moon, I totally would recommend you to look up.
Ever since I got my first digital camera, I was into night photography, but I wasn’t yet into the stars, as they would barely be visible in my home city of Brussels. I would rather do long exposure shots of the city, but would also experiment with the full moon illuminating a landscape, like the photos below here shot in the Nevada Desert and somewhere in California, between Death Valley and Yosemite National Parks (November 2005)
Long pose along a highway near Las Vegas, Nevada
Long pose along a highway somewhere in California
About 10 years ago, I was travelling in Australia. On a trip around the Whitsunday Islands an annoying British girl was bragging about how much the sky she had seen in the Red Center of Australia was a unique thing, that it was literally glowing, and noone would ever need a flashlight with that sky.
Later on that trip, I visited Fraser Island. This place is insane. It’s considered to be the biggest sand island in the world and has a tropical rainforest. Due to the fact it’s kind of remote, some pure dingoes roam the area, as in the other parts of Australia this would be a rare sight, due to dogs breeding with other races of dogs. From higher dunes you could clearly see sharks and manta rays in the ocean. Truly magical. The place I was staying at on the first night was a house, it had no electricity and kind of was the only structure of its kind on the entire island. At night, our group went to the beach with our flashlights where we would just sit and talk while listening to ocean waves crashing on the sand. That’s where things changed for me and an obsession was about to be born, as I lifted my head up and I saw something I would never have imagined seeing with my naked eye: the Milky Way. The sky was indeed literaly glowing and we actually didn’t need flashlights as the pure sky lights were just enough to guide us around.
I immediately went back to my room and got my camera and tripod. I installed it on the beach and did a 30 seconds exposure of the sky. This was the result. How should I say? I was pretty satisfied but this would not reflect in any way what it really looked like. This was shot with my very first DSLR, a Canon EOS 350D, with a kit lens, the 18-55mm. The exposure was 30 seconds opened at F4.5.
Star and Milky Way trails over Fraser Island, Australia (May 2006)
The photo just has some trails and hazy areas, but you can easily recognize the Southern Cross constellation, that was used in the past by navigators to know where the South was, as Polaris, the Northern Star, isn’t visible in the Southern Hemisphere.
A couple of years later I traveled to South America. I spent some days in the Atacama desert but sadly enough the moon was too bright to actually see the detail in the stars I was hoping for. The moon would set close to dawn and I would only briefly see the amazing sky from inside the van when on my way to the El Tatio geyserfield on an early morning. Oh well, I did see a pretty impressive meteor in broad daylight right at the entrance of San Pedro de Atacama, which compensated my frustration for a bit.
Moonlit road back to San Pedro de Atacama coming from Valle de la Luna (October 2007)
After this, I didn’t take much photos of the sky for some time. I naively thought the Milky Way and most of the stars were actually only visible from the Southern Hemisphere. Truth is, they are equally visible, no matter where you are on Earth, but I was misled due to the fact that the Northern Hemisphere is way more populated and thus light polluted than its southern counterpart.
The next time I got to see the Milky Way was in Bolivia in November 2012. I did a trip around the Salar de Uyuni and the Bolivian Altiplano, which are far away from any light pollution and pretty elevated (3500 to 4500 meters!) too. The moon was kind of a party pooper here too though, but prior to the moon rising I did manage to get a few reasonnable shots:
A barn lit up by dim town lights somewhere in the Bolivian Altiplano (November 2012)
The light behind the mountain is a thunderstorm (November 2012)
These were made with a Sigma lens opened at F2.8 for 30 seconds, using an already outdated Canon EOS 450D. As this was totally new for me and I had finally managed to capture the Milky Way on camera, I was ecstatic. But I still had no idea of what was to come. A week later, I tried to do the same kind of shot over Lake Titicaca, from a viewpoint in Copacabana, Bolivia. Not quite the success I had hoped, but a beautiful thing to see with the naked eye, while sipping on a beer and listening to music.
Lake Titicaca, Bolivia and the Milky Way by astronomical twilight (November 2012)
Short after my trip to Bolivia, I moved to San Francisco. My passion for photography was on a low since I felt limited by the possibilities my current camera had to offer. On the way to Yosemite with friends, we stopped in the middle of nowhere to just look at the stars. Everybody’s mind was blown by the brightness of the sky and how visible the Milky Way was. I was surprised to see this in the Northern Hemisphere and realized my reasoning had been wrong all this time. Since I still was using my old Canon EOS 450D, I didn’t set up the tripod and I just skipped taking photos, as I knew the results would be average.
A couple of months after that, something stupid happened: while taking a photo along the San Francisco Bay, my camera fell into the water and I finally had to do what I had been delaying for some time: replacing it with a recent model, with a much better sensor. I bought a Canon EOS 70D and swore to myself I would never ever take a photo near water again. Having this new, recent camera brought back my lost appetite for photography and I started planning road trips to different spots in the western part of the US.
On a road trip to Utah, I spent some time in what I would call one of the most awesome spots I have ever visited: Arches National Park. At night, the sky was so bright, but sadly enough on my first night, due to clouds, the Milky Way was barely visible. Don’t let clouds scare you, as the result actually ended up looking really nice!
Balanced Rock, Arches National Park, Utah (April 2014)
This photo has some clouds, the Milky Way and several spots of light pollution reflecting in the sky. The result is actually pretty ok.
I went back to the same spot the night after. Unfortunately I would have to wait until 3AM for the Milky Way to rise and become photographable, but at least the sky was clear. I did a couple of shots and finally managed to get what I would call an acceptable shot of the Milky Way, by Balanced Rock. I wasn’t perfectly equiped to lightpaint it, but it’s the sky that actually really mattered to me.
Balanced Rock, Arches National Park, Utah (April 2014)
I started reading some articles about astrophotography and got obsessed with the Andromeda (M31) galaxy once I saw this image pop up on “I Fucking Love Science”. It looked like that thing was 5 times the size of our moon and it wouldn’t be much of a challenge to capture it. I decided to push my obsession a step further and did some research to finally buy the Polarie Vixen star tracker. The idea of such a device is to calibrate it so the center of rotation of the motor is the celestial pole. The motor then turns at the speed of the earth, meaning one rotation a day.
Recently, we had a team retreat for work in Saratoga, California. At first I went outside, without the tracker, and managed to capture the Milky Way in a slightly light polluted sky. The post processing of the photo that makes it so wow and unnatural kind of reveals this.
The Milky Way, overprocessed, as seen from the Saratoga hills (August 2014)
The night after, I decided to hit the road and go further in the Saratoga hills. The sky was much more impressive. For the first time, I used the Polarie Vixen to photograph the sky, and after some trials I managed to get this 8 minute exposure shot of the sky, which revealed to me that the glow of the Milky Way actually all were dimmer looking stars. Once again, my mind was blown. My attempts to locate Andromeda failed, though. I don’t know if it was due to light pollution or if I was looking for it in the wrong place.
The Milky Way seen from a couple of miles from Saratoga, California (August 2014)
A couple of days ago, I decided to do an impromptu road trip to Lassen Volcanic National Park. This place is one of the most famous skies in the greater San Francisco area. I was amazed by its brightness and quickly found a spot to setup my camera and try to capture my precious: Andromeda. It took some time for the moon to set. But once it was gone, I had a two hour window to try and make this shot happen. Calibrating the Polarie Vixen actually took me more time than expected, and I had to recalibrate it a few times too due to my clumsiness. I did a couple of long exposures that took twice the time of the exposure, since the camera needs double the time for taking a dark frame (see later). After some trials and aiming, it was finally captured. When I tried to close up though, we were entering astronomical twilight, which would mean I would have to give up my efforts.
Four galaxies in one photo: The Milky Way, Andromeda (M31), M32 and M110. Lassen Volcanic National Park, California (September 2014)
Astrophotography is like a drug. It’s so addictive. You realize how small you are and you want to capture more and more of it. You never have enough.
Tips and tricks
How to take a widefield photo of the Milky Way
This is a question I get a lot. Based on the conditions listed under “Making the perfect shot” I would put my lens in 18mm for 20 seconds with a wide open diaphragm and ISO set to 800 and 1600. After that, it’s all up to you to experiment based on the different tricks listed here under.
Rule of 500/600
If you do not use a star tracker and want to capture the night sky without trails, you need to use what is commonly known as “the rule of 500”. Some people use 600, but I prefer to play it sure. Basically, you divide 500 by your focal length, and that gives you the maximum exposure time in seconds. Say I am doing a 50mm shot, this means I can only use an exposure of maximum 10 seconds. If I do a 20mm shot it means I can do a 25 seconds exposure. You do not need to take the crop factor into account.
Making the perfect shot
- The moon is your enemy, try to avoid it. It’s like a big flare in the sky that ruins everything. Sometimes the moon rises pretty late or sets pretty early, but there’s nothing like a new moon! There are websites around that help you find the times for the moonrise and moonset. I personally also have the phases of the moon in my Google Calendar. Please don’t forget to take into account daylight saving. If the site says the moon sets at 3AM in August, it actually means 4AM!
- Good weather. Avoid clouds, unless you really want them in your shot, and try to avoid wind as well. If it’s too windy your camera will move and you will see that on the resulting shot!
- Light pollution. Stay as far away from it as you can. Sure there are some examples of beautiful astrophotography with light pollution, but nothing beats a pure sky, somewhere up in the mountains, far away from any city or town. This page can help you. There is something called “the Bortle scale” that is a measure that allows you to evaluate the sky quality. Forget about it, Europe. I feel so lucky to be in California right now.
Light pollution in densely populated Europe
Light pollution around Northern California
- Astronomical twilight. Know when it ends after dusk and when begins before dawn. When it’s astronomical twilight, you will have a glow behind your stars. Unless it’s a desired effect I consider it an annoyance.
- Be extra careful! I sometimes polar align my Polarie Vixen and accidentally hit the tripod with my foot. This means I need to do the whole calibration thing over again. At night, losing 10 minutes doing this can be a huge waste of time depending on how much time you have to photograph the stars!
- Cover your camera eyepiece. Remember you are shooting in an environment where there is almost no light. A little bit of light could enter through your eyepiece and land on your sensor, especially if, just like me, you are doing stuff on your phone while the photo is being shot.
- Last but not least: take your photo in RAW mode. (duh!)
Gear
- To photograph the stars you need a camera with a good sensor. Nowadays even low end DSLRs have awesome sensors for this. The Bolivia shots above were taken with a Canon EOS 450D
- Use good optics, as with the stars detail is important. I use a Canon EF-S 10-22mm lens that opens at F3.5, a Sigma 17-55 that opens at F2.8 as well as a Canon EF L 70-200mm at 4.5. Having an indicator for the focus on the lens is important, though not always accurate as I have said earlier. Kit lenses will work but don’t expect an amazingly sharp result.
- Use an intervallometer. Those things don’t cost too much money on Amazon and let you set up any time you want for long exposures. They also allow you to do timelapse, which can be really cool in a stellar context. Also, a remote is the only way to maintain your camera’s stability, as pressing the button manually will result in shaking artifacts on your image.
- Buy a good flashlight. I use a 2-cell maglite that can light up any object withing 300 to 500 feet. This is perfect for lightpainting but also for setting your focus on distant objects.
- Buy a star tracker if you really want to get into it. It will change the way you look at the sky. I use the Polarie Vixen which is a cost-effective device that is also very portable and really easy to set up.
No tracking vs. tracking. Source: reddit.
Composition in the dark
Andromeda high ISO shot
I usually take my photos at around ISO800-1600. At night it can be pretty hard to compose your photo correctly. For this reason I set my camera in ISO12800 and take a 10 second shot. Sure, it will contain a lot of grain, but it will give you a fast preview of how good or bad your composition is. Once it looks ok to you, you can switch back to lower ISOs and longer exposure times. I used this technique to precisely locate Andromeda as it is too dim to see with the naked eye.
Focus
It’s quite hard to focus your lens on the stars. Sometimes even setting it in the infinite position renders the stars as big blurry dots. What I usually do is lock/unlock my car parked in the distance and focus on the lights inside the car that usually remain on for 30 seconds or so. Or you could use a powerful flashlight to light up something at a far distance of you and focus on this too
Stability
- Make the mirror of your camera come down a second before the actual photo is taken. Sometimes a small mirror movement can shake up your camera and this will be visible, especially if are zooming in.
- Use a remote. If the remote has a wire, don’t touch it once you have taken the shot. I made that mistake a couple of times.
- Pick a place where there is little to no wind.
- Be sure everything is stable on your tripod. It should not move!
Light painting
Light painting by Window Arch, Arches National Park, Utah
If you are not pointing your camera exclusively to the sky but would like to have something visible along with the stars you might have to do some light painting. Light painting with photos of the Milky Way is usually done without a sky tracker, because the foreground would become blurry due to the star tracker being locked to the rotation of the stars. I haven’t done much light painting myself but was lucky enough to sneak into a workshop at Arches National Park. I’m planning on doing this at Mono Lake on the next New Moon if weather permits. There are plenty of tutorials and examples online for this.
Types of twilight
It’s important to know that after sunset and before sunrise there are 3 different types of twilight: civil twilight, nautical twilight and astronomical twilight. Each of them comes with some neat stuff for night photography. Know when which twilight starts using this website. There also are plenty of apps that can tell you this.
Stacking
Taking long exposures of the dark sky comes with some problems. If the exposure is too long and you are not tracking your stars, you will get star trails. Also, a lot of “noise” comes from the sky, resulting in artifacts on your image. Finally, since some stars are really dim, they are pretty hard to get in a 30 seconds shot. The idea of stacking is to join multiple photos together and get an average of those photos in order to cancel out the noise. Here is a good guide to it.
Dark frames
Taking dark frames yourself is usually a good idea. If you take multiple shots with the same long exposure and your camera takes care of dark frames, you will end up spending twice as much time. As I said earlier, any minute at night time counts! What are dark frames? A dark frame is a photo taken with the lens cap on, with the same exposure and ISO settings as the shot that was just taken. That way the camera knows where what noise occurs (long exposure noise is usually pretty stable) and substracts that noise from the shot that was just taken. The idea of a perfect dark shot would be that each pixel reads 0,0,0, but that rarely occurs. Instead, there will be values close to it and a substraction will occur. Refer to your camera manual to know how to switch off dark frames and take them yourself. This article pretty much explains the process.
The power of levels
While I still do not totally master the editing of my photos to do stuff like this, using Lightroom and working those levels will change the way your shot looks. Don’t exaggerate it, you want your shot to look natural. The idea is to capture what your eye can’t see due to its sensitivity, and not to capture something that isn’t there in the way you are editing it.
Sky maps
The ultimate tool for any skygazer nowadays is a skymap app. I personally use Sky Charts (Android & iOS), which is pretty accurate and also gives me daily fun facts of “today in stellar history”.
I hope you enjoyed this article. If you have any additional tips, feel free to leave them in the comments!
