Sky & Telescope - USA (2019-09)

Photo Op Ahoy

38 SEPTEMBER 2019 • SKY & TELESCOPE

Moon or the solar corona during a total solar eclipse. This

lens is also excellent for framing conjunctions of the Moon

and planets, or just the Moon paired with a distant ship

near the horizon.

As for other lenses, close-up solar eclipse photos require

more focal length than 300-mm, so you may want to look into

purchasing a catadioptic mirror lenses, such as a 500-mm f/8.

While large, fi xed-focal-length lenses are great for land-based

imaging, I don’t recommend them on a cruise because they

take up a lot of the limited space in your camera bag.

When bringing your photography gear on board, avoid

checking it with your luggage, as damage can often occur in

transit. Your camera and lenses should fi t in an airline car-

ryon bag, or better yet, a padded camera backpack that never

leaves your sight.

Additional equipment you’ll need are a shutter release

cable and a light but sturdy tripod. A simple cable release is

all that is required for the task at hand, as your longest expo-

sure will be only several seconds at most. You can set the

camera to “continuous fi re” mode with the exposure length

set to 5 seconds, and then simply lock down the shutter but-

ton and snap away.

As for a tripod, I prefer a carbon-fi ber model with a 3-way

locking head. This helps steady the camera for focusing and

shooting. You may be tempted to purchase a tripod that can

wrap its legs around a post or rail, but in my experience these

models aren’t reliable for holding a heavy camera and lens

steady for several seconds. Not only that, but there are no pad-

ded surfaces on the outside decks of cruise ships, so a failure of

these grasping legs could be catastrophic for your equipment.

Focusing is accomplished the same way as in most DSLR

astrophotography. I use the camera’s “Live View” to zoom into

a bright star and tweak focus until the star is as small as I

can make it on the screen. This can be challenging as the star

bobs in and out of the frame, but with a little patience focus

can be achieved quickly. A good tip is to focus your camera

on a star before embarking on your cruise and mark the exact

position on the lens. You’ll still have to tweak the focus on

the ship, but you’ll be starting off very close right away.

Know Your Ship

Once you’re aboard your chosen vessel, familiarize your-

self with any potential observing spots during the day. Find

where the highest deck is, as well as access to the main deck,

the bow, and the stern. At night you should explore the ship

again to see where to avoid the worst lights and hopefully fi nd

some dark or shadowed areas. This is particularly important

in reference to the direction your ship is sailing when it

comes to deciding what you want to shoot.

Of course, the ship at sea will be in motion and well-lit

Much of the night sky can

be seen better on the open

ocean than at most rural

land-based locations.

pLIGHT SHIELDING A good lens hood can block the pervasive lights

on board, enabling you to record Milky Way scenes as if you were in

a dark location. The author took this photo centered on the Southern

Cross and the Carina Nebula off the coast of Chile using a 14-mm f/2.8

lens and a 13-second exposure at ISO 5000.

pSTEADY SHOT Calm seas offer opportunities for close-ups of inter-

esting areas of the sky. The author captured this image of the Coal Sack

(top left) and the Tarantula Nebula, NGC 2070 (right) using a 3-second

exposure through a 50-mm f/1.4 lens with the camera set to ISO 5000.

WA

VE

TE

XT

UR

E:^

LE

SIK

VIT

/^ I

ST

OC

K^ /

G

ET

TY

IM

AG

ES

PL

US