Astrophotography - Comet Neowise

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Hut said:
That must have been quite a shock to get a comet on screen not knowing about it. It's beautiful. I miss it...
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Yeah, the real shock was just the realization that the smudge in the sky was a comet. I first noticed it when there was still some sky glow to the West and thought it was a jet's contrail. Then when I glanced back that way about ten minutes later and it hadn't moved it finally dawned on me what I was looking at. As a kid we went out night after night trying to see comet Kohoutek and never did see the thing. So it took me a bit less than 50 years to finally see one :)
 
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I actually took this photo as a way to celebrate my birthday, while battling my bout with COVID-19. Really wanted to get out somewhere with darker sky. But I was pretty down this day. Even this little boy of activity was pretty taxing and likely was ill advised. I am not overly pleased with it. But I was not about to miss seeing this once in a lifetime comet. Took my kids {in seperate car, with masks and lots of distance} Good experience for them as well.
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KCPhoto said:
I actually took this photo as a way to celebrate my birthday, while battling my bout with COVID-19. Really wanted to get out somewhere with darker sky. But I was pretty down this day. Even this little boy of activity was pretty taxing and likely was ill advised. I am not overly pleased with it. But I was not about to miss seeing this once in a lifetime comet. Took my kids {in seperate car, with masks and lots of distance} Good experience for them as well.
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I think it very nice and a great memory. I hope you are feeling better and that your family is healthy as well.
 
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Really interesting to see these Astrophotography images wouldn't know where to start. Not sure I have the appropriate lens and light pollution would probably be an issue because we are pretty highly populated and packed in over here in the UK. I think photographers who are really into this, travel up to the North East of England to a forest somewhere around Newcastle / Sunderland. That's a 250 mile drive and then the weather has to be favourable. hmm interesting !
 
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Stevie n said:
Really interesting to see these Astrophotography images wouldn't know where to start. Not sure I have the appropriate lens and light pollution would probably be an issue because we are pretty highly populated and packed in over here in the UK. I think photographers who are really into this, travel up to the North East of England to a forest somewhere around Newcastle / Sunderland. That's a 250 mile drive and then the weather has to be favourable. hmm interesting !
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Stevie,
I'm fortunate to live somewhere with relatively dark skies but FWIW a lot of my astrophotography is done in conjunction with trips to the desert or other dark places. If I'm headed to a part of the country where I expect dark skies and might have some time to shoot I'll double check the moon rise/moon set to see how close I'll be to a new moon and if there's a good chance for dark skies. It doesn't always work out as clouds can really throw a wrench in things but a lot of the astrophotography sessions I've done have happened when I'm on the road and away from home.

Just food for thought if you live somewhere lacking dark skies. If you travel to darker places then you might think about checking the moon phase during your trip and carrying along at least a small astro kit. For getting started it's hard to beat the Rokinon/Samyang/Bower (same factory, different brand names) 14mm f/2.8 manual focus lens. It's a good fast lens for astro-landscape work like milky way shots and comes in lens mounts for various camera brands.

There's some great videos and blog posts on how to go about wide field single exposure (or stacked exposure) astro photography. If the bug really bites there are accessories like star trackers that can help take things up a level but great images can be captured with just a good, relatively fast wide angle lens, a tripod and a 20 to 30 second exposure.
 
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Hawkeshead said:
Super shots. Not having done any Astro, can anyone give me some pointers as to where to spam up on my technical knowledge on how to start out?
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Here's some good resources to get started:


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Milky Way Photography: The Definitive Guide (2024) | PhotoPills

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I strongly recommend single shot untracked (or multiple single shot untracked, stacked) approaches to begin astrophotography as it can deliver great shots and often can be done with existing lenses and cameras or at most require a relatively inexpensive fast lens (e.g. Rokinon 14mm f/2.8 MF lens) so it's pretty accessible to most photographers that already do some nature/landscape work.

If you get hooked on that then consider buying or building a tracking mount (e.g. barn door) which can take the game to a higher level but also requires more effort both in the field and in post for astro-landscape shots.
 
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I would certainly second what DR has mentioned above & the video references. I would also add Richard Tatti (Nightscape Images), Alyn Wallace and a Royce Bair as three other resources. PetaPixel also has some decent information on Milky Way and/or Astro photography techniques. And this list doesn’t begin to list them all. Good luck, ask questions & most of all take a lot of pictures!
 
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Way to go all, thanks for the info, extremely helpful. I look forward to taking my first foray into astrophotography. And there will be questions, no doubt! Really appreciate the support
 
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NEOWISE plus a plane on approach to Sea-Tac the night of July 14. The previous night (at the same spot) I noticed a plane on approach to Sea-Tac, but I was shooting with my 300 mm and didn’t have my telescope. This was taken using my Celestron C-8 (2032 mm f/10) and Nikon D-850, 20 sec at ISO 1000. The telescope was polar-aligned and tracking, so there are no star trails. Note that the shadow of the comet’s nucleus is visible in the tail.
NEOWISE Landing.jpg
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