Staring up at a clear night sky can make you feel very small and insignificant. On a clear night, preferably away from the city lights you will see untold numbers of stars. Even if you don’t know the difference between your Pollux and your Polaris it can be a magical experience. If you’re lucky you may even see a shooting star.
Speaking of which, Polaris is the only thing in the image below that looks roughly star shaped and which everything else appears to be revolving around. It’s also known as the Pole Star, or North Star. It is the star which mariners and explorers for thousands of years have used to navigate their way around the globe. Who needs sat nav when you have nature’s own free version, which doesn’t need charging and isn’t continually telling you off when you miss a turning. You do of course need to be travelling at night and a clear one at that, and it only actually tells you which direction of the compass you are heading towards, so don’t throw away the Sat Nav just yet.
Apparently our planet spins at over 1,000mph which, you might think, makes photographing a subject many light years away a bit of a challenge. In fact it presents an opportunity to get your camera out and capture some really striking images.
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| A 30 minute exposure at f8. ISO 800 |
It’s not difficult to capture some pretty stunning images of the night sky, so get your tripod out – the sturdier the better – and find the pole star (google ‘how to find the pole star’). Then set at least a 20-minute exposure at something like f8 - f16, ISO 800. Use a remote or cable release or timer and you’re all set. Go and have a cup of tea and wait for your image to materialise. It’s worth keeping away from any streetlights as, no matter how dim they might seem, over an extra long exposure the light from them will creep into your picture. Also think about anything else lurking in the darkness that might spoil the picture, like cables (carefully included in this picture to illustrate the point!).
Once you start finding your way around, you should be able to locate other planets in our solar system. But here’s one final thought to leave you with; if you manage to locate Jupiter, bear in mind that it takes the light reflecting from the surface something like 4 hours to reach Earth, so you are actually looking at what Jupiter looked like 4 hours ago. Now when you start thinking about the distances of the stars you are looking at (light years, not hours), you really get an idea of the vastness of space and in fact are looking back in time. Woah, getting a bit nerdy now; why not just get out there with your camera and start capturing some great images.
Disclaimer: My knowledge of astronomy and all things galactic is of the kind of proportions that could be written on the back of a postage stamp, therefore some of the information above could be wrong. I don’t think it is, but it might be.
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