2019-06-01_All_About_Space

It’s possible to take lovely photographs

ofthenightskywithjustacameraona

tripod,butwithamotorisedmountthat

tracks the stars as they move across the

skyyoucandomuch,muchmore

How to...

Tips & tricks

Steady as she goes

You’ll need a very sturdy, steady tripod

to use with a star tracker as they are

usually very heavy – much heavier than

a DSLR camera.

Keep things tight

Make sure everything on your tracker

is fastened tight; if anything is loose, or

slipping, your images will show stars as

trails, not pinpoints.

Don't over-expose

It’s tempting to take exposures

several minutes long just because

you can, but your tracker will give the

best results when limited to under a

minute, especially when using heavy

zoom lenses.

You have the power

Trackers eat batteries, so make sure

you have at least one spare set with

you before you head out to take

astrophotos.

Taking photographs of the night sky

and astronomical phenomena has

never been easier. Nowadays basic

digital SLR cameras take beautiful

portraits of the constellations, capture

thesubtleglowoftheMilkyWay

and catch meteors zipping across

thesky.Eventhecamerasbuiltinto

our phones can be set to take the

time exposures necessary to record

conjunctions of the planets, eclipses

andeventhestarryskyitself.

But there is only so much they can

do; if you want to capture really faint

objectsortakeverydetailed images

of the constellations and the Milky

Way you need to find a way to take

much longer exposures. The problem

here is as the Earth turns beneath

our feet the stars, planets and other

objects in the heavens appear to

move across the sky, so unless you

canfindawaytofollowthem they

will be recorded as trails on long-

exposure photos...

Astronomers used to get around

this by attaching their cameras to

their telescopes as they tracked

thesky.Todaytherearenow small

motorised mounts that can track the

sky independently simply from the

topofatripod,andtheycan give

superb results.

There are lots of different tracking

mounts available, but they all work

along the same principle: they

mechanically turn a camera mounted

on them at the same rate as the stars

revolve around the Pole Star, thus

allowing an astrophotographer to take

exposures of up to several minutes

in length, more than long enough

to capture amazing detail along the

glittering trail of the Milky Way, faint

comets and nebulae.

Whatever its make, the tracker

needs to be mounted on a very

sturdy tripod because they are

usually fairly heavy pieces of kit.

Then a camera needs to be fitted to

the tracker via a ball mount, which

will allow the camera to be aimed

at any point in the sky. The tracker

then needs to be manually aligned

with the Pole Star, either by sighting

on Polaris through a hole in the unit

or by lining up on it through the

tracker’s own small finder telescope.

These usually have illuminated

sighting circles inside them to assist

with alignment, and it’s worth

downloading a ‘Polaris Finder’

phone app that supports your

particular unit to ensure extra-

accurate polar alignment using

those circles.

You’ll need:

 Motorised tracking mount

(many different models

now available)

 DSLR camera

 Sturdy tripod

 Variety of lenses

 Cable release

 Image-processing

software

Use a

star tracker

STARGAZER