Steamboat Today: Routt County is ideal for astrophotography

Archive for Sunday, August 16, 2009

Jimmy Westlake

Two bright meteors tear through the night sky near Stagecoach Reservoir on Thursday night, the last night for prime viewing of the Perseids meteor shower. As awe inspiring as the brilliant flashes were, they - one on the left third of the photo, closer to the horizon than the top of the frame, and starting midway across the top of the photo and streaking down to the right - could be mistaken for scratches on the camera frame. Still, considering the complications involved in developing successful star photos, they amount to a resounding success.

By Joel Reichenberger Sunday, August 16, 2009

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Jimmy Westlake

The inclusion of things in the foreground can really make a great shot. Jimmy Westlake included an arch at Utah's Arches National Park in this photo. The lights of Moab glow behind the arch and the Milky Way extends "paint" the arch during the camera's exposure.

Jimmy Westlake

Rabbit Ears is visible in the bottom of Jimmy Westlake's photo of the northern sky. To achieve the circular effect, Westlake aimed his camera at Polaris, the North Star, during a long exposure.

Tips for night photography

- Set the f-stop, or aperture, low. An expensive, low-light nice lens could go to f-2.8 or lower, but whatever the lens capability, set it as low as possible.

- Set the ISO as low as possible, as well. A setting of 400 will produce a significantly less grainy shot than a setting of 800 or 1,600.

- Manually focus the camera on infinity.

- Set the shutter speed to the "bulb" setting. At that setting, the camera's shutter will remain open, collecting light, as long as the shooting button is held down. The longer the exposure, the more light will be collected and the more details of the universe revealed.

Depending on where the ISO and f-stop setting are, a 30-second exposure won't likely soak up much of the universe's details.

Extend the time to two minutes, four minutes or even longer, and beauty begins to stand out.

Equipment

An 11-inch telescope similar to Westlake's can run in the thousands of dollars. But that's not required to get good photos. Some other equipment is.

- A tripod is a necessity. It's impossible to hand-hold a camera still enough to get a quality astronomy photograph. The more expensive the tripod, the more stable it is likely to be, but there are plenty of cheap options for under $50 that will do.

- A wide-angle lens really helps. A wider lens - less than 30mm and even lower than 20mm if possible - helps capture the vastness of the sky. It also allows for slightly longer exposures before star trails become noticeable. An appropriate lens can be had for either of the two main brands - Nikon and Canon - for $200 or less.

- A cable release can be a big help. Even on a tripod, the human hand isn't stable enough to hold down the shutter release without shaking the camera. A cable release allows a photographer to press a button on a remote attached to the camera via a cord to open the shutter, doing away with the need to put shaky hands on the camera at all. Cable releases are available for less than $30.

- A camera with the option to set the photo parameters - shutter speed and f-stop - is a requirement. That doesn't mean it has to be a digital SLR, but all DSLRs would qualify. A Nikon D40x camera kit with an 18-55mm lens can be had for $479.95 on Amazon.com. The Canon Rebel XS, a similar camera with a similar lens, is $499.

Jimmy Westlake spoke softly, almost as if he was taking the metaphor he was about to use a little too literally.

"Taking meteor photos is like fishing," he explained, his trained eyes trained on the brilliant, sparkling canvas spread overhead.

The stars are brighter in Steamboat Springs than they are in most of the country's cities, and they're twice again as bright near Westlake's Routt County country home, built near the lapping shores of Stagecoach Reservoir.

A professor of astronomy and physics at Colorado Mountain College's Alpine Campus in Steamboat Springs, Westlake also is an avid astro-photographer.

Lights from houses shimmered from across the rippled lake and the stars screamed from above.

"You just have to wait and watch," he said, still almost whispering as if a loud noise might scare away the prey. "You have to wait until you see your bobber move. Just like fishing."

Trying to photograph meteor showers, like the Perseid shower that reached its peak Tuesday night, can be a crapshoot. I knew that as I mounted my Nikon D70s atop Westlake's 11-inch motorized telescope.

But the moon was coming from behind the horizon in one direction and a light haze was beginning to drift in from another, the sky slowly but noticeably becoming washed out and obscured.

I lined up my shot, hoping to capture the peak of a small rise near Westlake's home, the heart of the stunning Milky Way galaxy and - I could only hope - a meteor.

I clamped down on the shutter release and crossed my fingers. It wasn't 30 seconds before Westlake himself almost made me let go, booming a shout into the sky as one, then two fiery meteors - little more than specks of space dust slamming into the atmosphere - burned right through the section of sky I had trained my camera on.

"Wow!" he bellowed. "Two on your first try. That's lucky!"

Definitely so, but with a few tips and the right equipment, the beauty of Routt County's star-lit summer night can be photographic fodder for anyone, lucky or not.

Easy, but spectacular

Westlake's telescope came equipped with a motor that negated the effect, but the rotation of the Earth can quickly spoil a shot of the stars. Even in a short, 60-second exposure, the Earth might spin enough to turn the sharp points of light into disappointing blurs.

While streaking stars can ruin some exposures, photographers without access to a sky-tracking telescope still can produce awesome shots, incorporating the effects of the rotation of the earth into the photo.

One easy way to come away with a cool photo is to center a shot on Polaris, the North Star.

Finding Polaris

As the world turns, Polaris remains almost motionless in the sky, all the other stars circling around the bright star located at the end of the Little Dipper.

The easiest way to find the star is to first find the Big Dipper. If you can't find the Big Dipper, shooting stars isn't for you.

Find the last two stars on the dipper's cup, the end of the spoon, and draw a line through them, out the top of the cup. The first bright star that line will intersect is Polaris.

Setting up the shot

Set the camera up on a tripod, and compose the photo around Polaris. The star doesn't have to be in the center of the frame. A mountain or another landmark can be tucked into the bottom or side of the shot, but the effect is best if there is a healthy amount of room around Polaris.

For a good shot that captures the streaking of the stars, it's best to have a long exposure of at least two minutes. The longer the exposure, the more exaggerated the effect will be. Leave the camera open for 15 or 20 minutes, and the whole sky can be overtaken by star trails, which will form giant concentric circles around Polaris, which for the most part won't move at all.

Learn more

Professor Jimmy Westlake's "Celestial News" column appears weekly in the Steamboat Pilot & Today, and his "Cosmic Moment" radio spots can be heard on local radio station KFMU. Also, check out Jimmy's astrophotography Web site at www.jwestlake.com. Westlake will put his skills and equipment on display at 9 p.m. Aug. 29 at the Stagecoach Star Party at the Keystone Picnic Area at Stagecoach State Park. Westlake encourages everyone to bring their own telescopes, cameras and tripods to the event.