Intro:
I wanted to participate on the Astronomy Club Camping trip in Laguna because, I have recently joined Astronomy Club and I haven't yet gone on a camping trip with them. I am really interested in Astronomy and I wanted to learn and get a closer look at constellations, solar flares, the sun, our moon. This trip allowed me to do activities that I would never be able to do in class or at home. The things I really wanted to do/learn where, learn the basics of astro photography, learn the basics of using a telescope, learn new constellations, take light exposure pictures, and to get a closer look with the telescope. The information included in this blog is from research, the Laguna camping trip and the very recent camping trip in Joshua Tree where Andrew taught me more about astrophotography I will have a slide show of the pictures I took at Joshua Tree.
Thursday Night:
We met at school at seven and made our way up to Lagonna. When we got their Maia, and I had to set up our tent in the dark which was pretty challenging. After we were settled we headed down to the meadow which was right by our site. The telescope was set up and there was a few tripods. A tripod is essential for astrophotography because if the camera moves slightly will the exposure is taking the picture will be extremely blurry. I brought my Nikon D200 to use for astrophotography. After setting up the camera, Maia Morgan and I were kind of clueless on what to do next. I asked Gabe if he could help me because he is amazing with cameras. He showed me how to correctly change the settings on your camera so the you could capture the stars.These setting included changing the ISO to a high amount around 1,000 another being you had to set the lense to manual, and you have to set the shutter speed to high amount around 10-30 seconds. Once I knew generally what the settings should be and how I should change them it was easy to take pictures and get to be creative and experimental with angels and you could mess slightly with the ISO and shutter speed depending on what you wanted to make more clear. We experimented with different camera angels and tried to get pictures of ORion's Belt and the Little Dipper. The conditions on Thursday night were not the best because, it was a bit overcast and the clouds kept on sweeping in and out. So it was really hard for the people with the telescope to get a clear look at some of the stars and galaxies they wanted to. But everyone got a clear look and some amazing pictures of the Whirlpool Galaxy was so incredible. It was pretty hard to see what the picture would look like before you would take it because the exposure is so long. The best picture I took was one of ORion's Belt, it had a plane going by while took it which actually gave it a really cool effect, I’ll put the picture below. After finishing taking pictures of the sky, Morgan, Maia and I decided to take light exposure pictures. To do this basically you keep the similar settings with the ISO and the lense exposure. One person takes the picture while the someone else holds a bright flashlight and moves it around in some kind of shape or cool pattern. The camera captures all of the light movements and compiles it into one picture so that it looks like you were drawing with light. We tried many different types light exposure pictures. They will be down below. Next, Morgan, Gabe, Japsi, Noah, Maia, and I decided to go the rocks middle of the field. So that we could take long exposure pictures using light steel wool. One of us would hold a rope with steel wool that has been light and you swing it around quickly when you do this. Sparks fly from the steel wool as it increases speed. The long exposure captures all of the sparks that come from the wool making the pictures look incredible. I got to swing the wool for one of the pictures it was really exciting. We could’nt stay at the rocks for very long because it got extremely cold. But while gabe was taking pictures Maia and I looked at constellations and tried to find the ones on our hit list.
What I learned from this experience:
http://www.untamedscience.com/blog/steel-wool-science/
http://digital-photography-school.com/8-tips-for-long-exposure-photography/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astrophotography
Reflection:
I learned while still having a lot of fun and getting to know amazing people in astronomy club. It was extremely cold like 40 degrees I definitely learned some wilderness skills too. I would definitely love to go on another camping trip with them. Now that I know more about the basics of astrophotography I can really focus on getting awesome shots. Astrophotography is defiantly something that I would like to continue doing and learning about because I really enjoy it. It was so magical to look through the telescope and see another galaxy it's really spiritual for me to think about the infinite cosmos that we have only explored a small piece of. This trip was such an amazing and very meaningful learning experience for me, that I will never forget! I am so glad I got the opportunity to go. Please take a look at the slide show it has lots of pictures from the trip.
I wanted to participate on the Astronomy Club Camping trip in Laguna because, I have recently joined Astronomy Club and I haven't yet gone on a camping trip with them. I am really interested in Astronomy and I wanted to learn and get a closer look at constellations, solar flares, the sun, our moon. This trip allowed me to do activities that I would never be able to do in class or at home. The things I really wanted to do/learn where, learn the basics of astro photography, learn the basics of using a telescope, learn new constellations, take light exposure pictures, and to get a closer look with the telescope. The information included in this blog is from research, the Laguna camping trip and the very recent camping trip in Joshua Tree where Andrew taught me more about astrophotography I will have a slide show of the pictures I took at Joshua Tree.
Thursday Night:
We met at school at seven and made our way up to Lagonna. When we got their Maia, and I had to set up our tent in the dark which was pretty challenging. After we were settled we headed down to the meadow which was right by our site. The telescope was set up and there was a few tripods. A tripod is essential for astrophotography because if the camera moves slightly will the exposure is taking the picture will be extremely blurry. I brought my Nikon D200 to use for astrophotography. After setting up the camera, Maia Morgan and I were kind of clueless on what to do next. I asked Gabe if he could help me because he is amazing with cameras. He showed me how to correctly change the settings on your camera so the you could capture the stars.These setting included changing the ISO to a high amount around 1,000 another being you had to set the lense to manual, and you have to set the shutter speed to high amount around 10-30 seconds. Once I knew generally what the settings should be and how I should change them it was easy to take pictures and get to be creative and experimental with angels and you could mess slightly with the ISO and shutter speed depending on what you wanted to make more clear. We experimented with different camera angels and tried to get pictures of ORion's Belt and the Little Dipper. The conditions on Thursday night were not the best because, it was a bit overcast and the clouds kept on sweeping in and out. So it was really hard for the people with the telescope to get a clear look at some of the stars and galaxies they wanted to. But everyone got a clear look and some amazing pictures of the Whirlpool Galaxy was so incredible. It was pretty hard to see what the picture would look like before you would take it because the exposure is so long. The best picture I took was one of ORion's Belt, it had a plane going by while took it which actually gave it a really cool effect, I’ll put the picture below. After finishing taking pictures of the sky, Morgan, Maia and I decided to take light exposure pictures. To do this basically you keep the similar settings with the ISO and the lense exposure. One person takes the picture while the someone else holds a bright flashlight and moves it around in some kind of shape or cool pattern. The camera captures all of the light movements and compiles it into one picture so that it looks like you were drawing with light. We tried many different types light exposure pictures. They will be down below. Next, Morgan, Gabe, Japsi, Noah, Maia, and I decided to go the rocks middle of the field. So that we could take long exposure pictures using light steel wool. One of us would hold a rope with steel wool that has been light and you swing it around quickly when you do this. Sparks fly from the steel wool as it increases speed. The long exposure captures all of the sparks that come from the wool making the pictures look incredible. I got to swing the wool for one of the pictures it was really exciting. We could’nt stay at the rocks for very long because it got extremely cold. But while gabe was taking pictures Maia and I looked at constellations and tried to find the ones on our hit list.
What I learned from this experience:
- I learned a lot more about my camera. Like how to adjust the ISO and exposures so that you could capture the stars. I needed to know how to focus the lens manually before taking pictures. First you switch the lens to manual then you you look through the view finder at a very bright star or point like venus or polaris, you twist the outer part of your lens back and forth until you find the perfect spot were the star is in focus and it almost looks like a pin point in the sky. You can use the other part of your lens to zoom in or out depending if you want a wide angle or you want to focus on a smaller portion of the sky. I learned a lot more about what the settings on camera do for example how the ISO determines the brightness of a photo like how much the light the camera lense picks up. You need a higher ISO when you are taking pictures at night so they will be more clear and the stars will show up prominently. To take pictures we also needed to slow the shutter speed. Which is like how long the camera lense is open. You need to make the exposure long so that it could capture more of the details of the sky and make it more clear. When you use the shutter speed you must use a tripod otherwise the picture will be extremely blurry. Also set the F stop to near standard at around 22. You also must change the aperture. None of these settings have to be exact you can mess with them depending on the conditions and how you want the photo to look. In short I learned the very basics of astrophotography.
- I learned how to do steel wool photography. Steel wool is made from 2% low-carbon steel that also contains iron (Fe) that material is shaven into extremely small strands. When the steel wool is light it can reach up to 700 degrees. The high temperatures react with the oxygen in the air this creates iron oxide (Fe02) The reaction kind of cascades through the steel until all of the strands of steel wool have been heated. As we were taking the pictures we would swing the steel wool as fast as possible, this created even more oxygen for the steel wool to react with. Speeding up this reaction makes the beautiful sparks fly through the air like you see in the photos. The extra long exposure captures every spark and the direction it traveled in. Creating a beautiful unique photo.
- I also learned some of the constellations that I have never seen before like ORion's belt, The Seven Sisters and Cancer. I also got to see the whirlpool galaxy in the the telescope which looked amazing and I had never heard about until this trip.
http://www.untamedscience.com/blog/steel-wool-science/
http://digital-photography-school.com/8-tips-for-long-exposure-photography/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astrophotography
Reflection:
I learned while still having a lot of fun and getting to know amazing people in astronomy club. It was extremely cold like 40 degrees I definitely learned some wilderness skills too. I would definitely love to go on another camping trip with them. Now that I know more about the basics of astrophotography I can really focus on getting awesome shots. Astrophotography is defiantly something that I would like to continue doing and learning about because I really enjoy it. It was so magical to look through the telescope and see another galaxy it's really spiritual for me to think about the infinite cosmos that we have only explored a small piece of. This trip was such an amazing and very meaningful learning experience for me, that I will never forget! I am so glad I got the opportunity to go. Please take a look at the slide show it has lots of pictures from the trip.