This February I learned about Astrophotography and wanted to try it myself, astrophotography is capturing the stars in the night sky through the long exposure method and if done correctly the milky way can also be observed.In order to take proper pictures a place with low light pollution levels needs to be identified. Through this activity I covered LOs 1, 2,3, and 4
LO 1
When I started this activity I quickly realized that just taking a long exposure from any angle or location will not work. Plus in order to make an capture appealing a fair amount of editing skills are required which I did not possess. To overcome this I had to find a place which met the requirements for astrophotography, which also helped me develop LO3 and learn how to properly edit photographs using photoshop. I was also held back by the equipment i was using, because a smartphone was not nearly as good as a professional camera.
LO 2
The biggest challenge for me was to find a spot with low light pollution since due to my location there are a lot of buildings and structures which emit light this meant that the location had to be outside the city and at a reasonable distance. The problem of light pollution also helped me further involve LO3 as I had to plan out my timings to take the photos since the moon should not be visible when taking photos because it emits too much light and conceals the stars.
LO 3
In order to experience good conditions for astrophotography i had to carefully plan my dates to go out. The dates chosen were based on the moon cycles and interesting astronomical events. planning days to do something was new skill I learned because there were so many factors to consider while finalising a date.
LO 4
Taking good photos required a lot of perseverance since each shot took at least 30 seconds to capture and each shot had to set up differently which took a lot of time, this lead to taking shots for hours to reach a one I am satisfied with. there are also times when the sky is covered with clouds which block the stars, in situations like the only choice is to wait for the clouds to clear up.
