Astrophotography 101: Getting Started without Getting Soaked

Cost: $36 per person
Maximum attendance: 28

NOTE: The time is 7:30 PM Pacific Time (10:30 pm ET) to 9:00 PM (midnight ET)
Location: WEBINAR - i.e. from your computer anywhere in the world.

Astrophotography is a sub species of night photography that requires more specialized knowledge, more discipline, and usually more investment in time and equipment (i.e. cost!). Those super cool pictures of nebula and galaxies do not happen by accident. Astrophotographers also have developed their own curious language with terms like guiding, tracking, mounts, GEM, integration time, flats, bias, and dark frames. The goal of this course is to provide the background information a potential astrophotographer will need to get started on the best foot - at the lowest investment.

Theory of astrophotography (long exposures, multiple exposures, integration time) Tracking (what and why) Lenses and cameras. Inexpensive solutions for equipment, mounts, software. Dark vs suburban skies Proper exposure(s) - with visual examples The top 3 challenges Recommendations, costs and summary. Q&A Resources (Clubs, Books, Web Sites) Note: If you're even moderately interested in Astrophotography, this class might save you from making 100s of dollars worth of bad investments.

Since this is a Webinar, please see IMPORTANT CONSIDERATIONS below for things to consider before joining the class.

Here is a photo taken with a cheap equatorial mount, a Canon 40D, a 1.4 tele-extender and a 70-200mm f/4 lens (cost of the equatorial mount < $350). Note this image was taken in town with an 80% illuminated moon.

http://farm7.staticflickr.com/6223/6289792460_5a7f041aec.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/steventheamusing/6289792460/)

Here is an image taken with a Canon 50D on an Orion Sirius Equatorial mount with at Orion 80ED refractor. The total cost for the mount and refractor is under $1500.

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7015/6456882585_7b3384a173.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/steventheamusing/6456882585/)

Here is an example of the Milky Way taken "in town" using only a camera and tripod.

http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6170/6175507550_85cd6b0e56_m.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/steventheamusing/6175507550/)

There are successor classes you may be interested in, too:

Astrophotography 101 (http://events.starcircleacademy.com/events/34446772/): Getting Started without getting Soaked (this class)

Astrophotography 201 (http://events.starcircleacademy.com/events/34684492/): In the Field - capturing images in a dark environment not far from the Bay Area.

Astrophotography 301 (http://events.starcircleacademy.com/events/34685092/): Processing Your Image for best Results

You might also find

Night Photography 111 (http://events.starcircleacademy.com/events/34723892/): Catching the Moon interesting and helpful, too.

IMPORTANT CONSIDERATIONS

You should have a decently fast internet connection! Dial-up won't work for audio or the data content.

At minimum you must have speakers to hear the audio. A headset with a microphone is the most convenient. If you do not currently have a headset I suggest getting a Plantronics headset with a microphone and a USB connection (http://support.citrixonline.com/GoToTraining/all_files/GTT030002). Such headsets can be found at Frys and Best Buy for from $25 and up. Headsets come in many styles including behind the head, over the head, single ear, open ear and closed. Most laptops include speakers and microphones but the audio quality of these is generally very poor. Some webcams also include built in microphones but generally the quality of those is very poor. If you do not have a microphone, you can interact using the CHAT and Q&A features of the webinar.