As longer-term followers of my site will be able to tell you, I've been interested in stargazing ever since my earliest days growing up in the rural US. The lack of lighting at night made it possible for my neighbors and I to go out with a flashlight on overcast nights and light up a spot of the clouds above us, and see countless stars. But as I got older, and had greater exposure to the online communities that are also interested in stargazing, I realized that astrophotography is not only an institutional exercise, that I had long read about in publications from the local state college observatory, but also a personal endeavor that people took part in at home for recreational purposes or personal business.
I believe that many, if not most, people interested in astrophotography have a similar story, and are somewhere between the initial childhood fascination with the night sky and the more "developed", for lack of a better term, passion for the practice of capturing high color images of constellations, planets, or specific portions of the night sky. As a resource for people just starting their journey, I've compiled a couple of popular websites that will provide a bit of advice for people looking to get into the hobby or business of astrophotography.
#1. Reddit.com/r/astrophotography
Reddit offers a great way for people to get in touch with others who share similar interests, and for this particular hobby the rule holds true. The people on Reddit have worked together to develop not only a thriving community where individual contributors may share photographs of the sky and discuss the details of their personal setups, seek advice about programs used to colorize and edit photos, and determine best practices for finding areas to collect unspoiled images without surface light pollution. I especially like the accessible language and openness to all experience levels, as it makes it easier for a young person with a small telescope, or no telescope, and a cheap camera to not only find great pictures but also share his or her own pictures with the larger group, with only constructive criticism.
#2 Popular Photography
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| Great article by Paul Lefavre, Popular Photography, screenshot taken 7/16/16 |
Popular photography is primarily a magazine aimed at hobbyist and professional photographers that are interested in techniques and equipment to get the most out of the images that they are trying to create, in terms of clarity, color, depth or any one of a number of other important factors. One of my favorite things about popular photography is the amateur focus, in that the language is not overly technical and the concepts discussed are, at least initially, very basic in nature and easy for beginners to understand.
In 2008, about 8 years ago as of the date of this piece, the magazine featured a very nice tutorial on the general principles of astrophotography, and I consider it a "must read" for people that want to take their current equipment that is adapted to, for instance, take pictures of people at birthday parties or milestone events (graduations, weddings, etc) and change the settings to get clear images of stars in a much more challenging low light, high contrast night sky. I can also recommend Popular Photography for other content, since it's quite an interesting read. Please excuse me while I click around the site for a couple of hours...
