Astro
9A/B/C: Astrophotography – Fall ‘07
Syllabus
Instructor: Rick Nolthenius, rm 706a,
479-6506
rinolthe, then the "@"
sign, on the cabrillo server: cabrillo.edu
Lab Assistants: all-around darkroom jock
Karl Von Ahnen
A 1 unit course with the goal of teaching
you to take and print astounding photos of the heavens - with no prerequisites!
What's in Store for You:
On clear nights we'll go up to the
observatory on the west side of campus at the end of “well road” - the dirt
road past the VAPA kilns ends at the observatory. There we'll spread out, you'll get your creative juices flowing
and shoot pictures. We have lots of cool equipment, as you’ll see below. Many
of your pictures will be wide angle pictures requiring no magnification, only
good guiding.
On cloudy nights and at full moon we'll stick
to the photolab and develop your film, and print and mount your pictures.
We'll also have lectures and examples of digital imaging results.
Since Aptos is not an ideal place to do astronomy, we'll do a weekend
camping trip or two. These will enable you to get pictures from really DARK
sites, as well as enjoy the great outdoors, enjoy Rick's camp cooked breakfast
treats to re-energized you after your night of deep sky photography, and
generally bond with us as we enjoy ourselves! Also, there’ll be an occasional
little ‘mini-trips’ which I and other photo veterans take up to Bonny Doon or
elsewhere for targets of opportunity. There’s also the dark sky viewing at the
Bonny Doon Airport (a big open field!) put on by the Santa Cruz Astronomy Club
two Saturday nights per month. You’re welcome to join them for your shooting
under dark skies. See their webpage for
their schedule, and see my webpage for directions to this and other local
astronomy observing spots.
Optional Field Trips
We’ll take a
poll of the class and decide which date works best. My favorite site is Mercey
Hot Springs. See the Schedule for the dates and preliminary plans, subject
to class discussion.
I also hope you
consider signing up for Astro 28S
which will be a weekend camping trip
to the Hot Springs country near Mono Lake in the Eastern Sierra – Sept
29-Oct 1. Camping in a dark setting with great views of summer Milky Way. Sign
up early - it will likely fill. It's not an official Astro 9 trip, but it'll
give you another opportunity to join me and the astro club for astrophotos
in a beautiful place.
Be flexible
since rain will force reschedules at the last minute. If you can't make a field
trip, I won't count it against you as far as attendence. However, you'll miss the
opportunity to get some unique and awesome shots.
Our Awesome Website
I’ve succumbed
– I’m addicted to blogging! (that’s web logging, for the non-nerds). I’ve been
building and maintaining a pretty extensive web site for the Astronomy
Department which includes Astro 9 and many of the cool photos, as well as our
many trips. The “Events” page you should especially check often, for the latest
plans or possibilities. Go to
www.cabrillo.edu/~rnolthenius
Equipment:
I want all Astro 9A students to do some
film photography. It’s important to know the guts of the photographic process
and art from a classic perspective before venturing on into digital.
Astrophotography is the most demanding of the astronomy courses in terms of
required equipment. Those without cameras should either shop for a used one on
E-Bay or the local flea market (buyer beware), or share the one film camera we
have at the observatory (sorry – can’t be taken home with you). I recommend
that you get your own camera. What kind? Ah! The modern fully automated cameras
are NO GOOD for astrophotography! The reasons are - (1) They will try to expose
long enough to turn any scene into a medium gray, even if they exhaust their
batteries in the process, and (2) their shutters are held open with a magnetic
mechanism which draws battery power to stay open. That's fine for daylight
shots of 1/250th second. Not good for a 15 minute time exposure! Personally, I
don't care for the modern film cameras; they're meant for Luddites (that’s a
techno-phobe in case you don’t know). You, on the other hand, are an aspiring
artiste, and will want one of the classic old manual shutter cameras. Here's a
partial list...
Olympus OM-1,
OM-1n, OM-2, OM-4
Nikon FM
Minolta
Pentax
Canon
Look for a
camera which has either a very simple light meter, or better yet, no light
meter or electronics at all. You can find these for ~$100 from mail order
places like B&H Photo in NYC, or sometimes at the local Camera World on
Mission or next to the 41st Ave cinema, or Wolf Camera on Bay St.,
or one of the camera stores over the hill. If you're lucky, you can find a good
deal at the Skyview Drive-in flea market on Saturday or Sunday morning. Or ask
your dad or friends.
Cabrillo Observatory equipment available
for you:
·
6 good quality tripods. Not enough for
everyone so bring your own or buy one at the flea market or Ebay if you can.
·
12" Meade
LX200 computer controlled f/6.3 telescope, permanent
mount. This is the big scope under the dome!
·
10” Meade
LX200 portable, for planet and lunar photography. Not equatorially mounted, so
not suitable for guided time exposures.
·
8” f/4 Meade
LXD75 Schmidt Newtonian. Great for deep pictures of 1-2 degree fields of view.
·
Losmandy GM8
mount. This is a beautiful piece of work and allows precisely guided long
exposures for up to 4 cameras as a time, or for mounting a small telescope. For
dark sky use mainly.
·
SBIG STV
VideoCCD Autoguider. This is a multi-purpose digital camera, but we’ll be using
it mainly as an autoguider, to make sure our cameras are tracking perfectly.
·
8" Meade
2080 telescope, field-trip ready, can be used for piggybacking.
·
8" Meade
LX50 telescope, field-trip ready, can be used for piggybacking or prime focus.
·
400mm f/4.5
telephoto lens. We'll have T-rings to adapt to the common camera bodies.
Suitable for field use for moon and sun close-ups, and hopefully for piggyback
guiding on the LX50.
·
5” Megrez APO
Triplet refractor. Nice scope for either camera or digital, 3-4 degree field of
view. Suitable for guided moderate
magnification subjects like Andromeda galaxy, Orion Nebula.
·
Canon camera
body with 50mm and 100mm lenses. Camera-less students have dibs on this. You’ll
have to strategize together to make this workable as a share.
·
Minolta Dimage
5 digital camera. To be used for moon and planet photos (but we have no planets
in the evening sky this semester – bummer!).
·
Minolta Dimage
Elite II film/slide scanner. This I hope to set up on a computer in the photo
lab.
·
Meade Deep Sky
Imager. A digital camera good for mating to the Megrez.
Essential equipment
Camera; as described
above. We do have one single film camera to share. You can’t bring it home
– for observatory and field trip use only. Camera-less students can get together and buy film and then trade
off taking pictures, keeping track of who shot what. Or you may just want
to do digital photography using the observatory's digital cameras. The only
drawback there is that you won't be able to do any imaging except in class.
Cable
release; those stringy pushbutton things you see in the movies. Cable
releases can be found at any camera shop for ~$10-15.
Tripod
- are more like $30-120, but you can often find used ones for very cheap at
the flea market. The astronomy department has 6 tripods for general use, and
most students have their own, so if you don't have a tripod, don't feel obligated
to buy one for this class - you can use ours (in class only).
Supplies:
If you are an
Astro 9A student, you must do at least some pictures on film, so you can get
experience developing and printing here. Other shots can be digital, and
printed commercially. Some supplies below relate only to film pictures…
Film - We'll mostly be
shooting black and white; runs about $4 for a 36 exposure roll. You'll probably
shoot several rolls before the semester's over. T-Max 400 is a good all-around
choice. It's fast and yet not too grainy. For really fast film and if you don't
mind lots of grain try T-Max 3200. You can buy film at any camera store. Bay
Photo or Monterey Bay photo, both just down the street from Cabrillo, or Camera
World near Orchard's on 41st. Don't bother with Long's or Safeway, they just have
color print film for photo dweebs. If you like to buy a bunch at a time and
save money, try B&H Photo in New York - via the web. (they've got good
deals on Fuji slide film; $9.00 per 36 exp roll with processing mailer
included) Paper - You'll be printing your pictures on paper so they're suitable
for mounting. RC (for resin coated) paper is good for giving nice
astrophotography shots. Nowadays, only multi-grade paper is available. That’s
OK, the filters on the enlargers will give us the high contrast we want for
astrophotography. It's about $18 for a box of 8x10 sheets which will last you
for the semester easily. With the transition to digital, it's now getting very
hard to find some things. Your best local source for all supplies is Monterey Bay Photo on Park Ave, a
block west of campus.
Negative sheets - These are polyethylene 8x10 pages which
you can slip your developed negatives into. Essential to prevent scratches. You
can buy 10 sheets for about $8.
Notebook - a 9x11 hardcover 3 ring binder with pockets. This will hold
your negative sheets as well as log sheets. Each and every photo you take
should have a log entry; date, exposure, aperature, lens, camera, subject, and
any relevant special notes. This is how you'll learn to take good shots; see what
works and what doesn't. It'll do no good to get back a roll and see a few good
and a lot of bad shots and not remember what you did to get them. Also, these
details will need to be written on the back side of your prints turned in. Hey,
I'm curious too how you got your shots. We can all learn from each other when
we see a great picture.
briefcase - this is a good idea to carry your photo
supplies around; paper (which needs to stay closed up against the light),
notebook, finished prints, mountboard, etc.
Attitude: patience and a willingness to experiment, love of the night sky,
and willingness to bring chocolate chip cookies!
Grading and
projects - See the separate handout on
projects and grading.
Getting Started (film photographers)....
It’s very good
to get a roll of film shot and ready to go as soon as possible, from home. For
example, suppose we get fogged out of our first several class nights? Cloudy
nights are for developing, printing, scanning, mounting, etc. You can’t do any
of that unless you’ve done some shooting already.
1. Buy a roll
of T-Max 400 black and white film.
2. Go outside
on as dark and clear a night as the moon and sky will allow.
3. Mount your
camera on a tripod, and attach a cable release.
4. Set your
lens aperature wide open, point the camera in an interesting direction (no, not
your cute neighbor's window; up is good, for starters!) and start shooting!
Start with a 2 or 3 second exposure and work your way up to 10 minutes or even
longer.
5. WRITE
EVERYTHING DOWN!! DATE AND TIME, SUBJECT, SKY CONDITIONS,
FILM AND LENS
USED, EXPOSURE TIMES, ETC. THESE WILL BE REQUIRED TO
BE ON YOUR
PHOTOS WHEN YOU HAND THEM IN!!! Use the handy forms I'll give
you on the
first night.
6. Bring in
the exposed roll and your records to class – you develop it, pick out the best
shots, and make fabulous prints of your own! Get familiar with developing as
soon as possible.