Technological advancement has made it possible for astrophotographers to capture stars from under a light-polluted location.
Let’s look at some tips and steps to do star photography in a dense urban area.
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Tips for Star photography in Dense urban area
* Switch to a monochrome CCD camera:
The first thing you have to do is switch from a DSLR camera to a CCD camera.
A DSLR camera is suitable for low light photographs, so it cannot produce detailed star images when used in a light-polluted area.
The CCD monochrome cameras can capture details of faint objects in the sky from a light-polluted area. They’re more sensitive and have a great dynamic range. A CCD camera can detect an enormous range of luminosity.
In dense urban areas, the night sky stars are less visible due to the numerous light sources, but you can capture them with a CCD camera.
* Apply filters
A monochrome CCD camera can only detect the luminosity of the light, not its colors. To reveal the original color of the stars, you have to use filters.
In the usual color imaging, three different colors (Red, Green and Blue) distinguish the primary colors of the visual spectrum. The RGB filters help to estimate the color sensitivity of the human eyes so that the resulting pictures are true colors.
When using the RGB filters, various wavelengths across the visible spectrum get captured from the sky. To reduce this, you can use a simple CLS CCD filter to improve the clarity of your images.
* Shield your equipment from light pollution
Before capturing, shielding your equipment from light pollution is more effective than trying to adjust captured images in post-processing programs. You can add a simple cardboard cuff to the end of your scope.
Steps for Star photography in Dense urban area
1. Plan your shootings using a space exploration program such as cosmonium to locate where your target would appear in the sky and how much time you have to capture it.
2. Set up your equipment and camera settings. Do not forget to use a tripod.
3. Shoot when your target is just past the meridian line in the sky.
4. Filter the photographs in the post-processing program to sharpen the clarity of the images.
Capturing star images in a dense urban area could be more challenging, especially for beginners. However, with proper planning, good equipment and consistency, you will eventually get your desired images.
Best camera settings to use for dense area Star photography
* Your ISO setting should be around 800 to avoid noisy images.
* Set the focus to manual to prevent your camera from picking strange objects in the sky.
You can use Autofocus if you are not interested in shooting particular objects.
* Set your white balance to Auto white balance.
* Exposure: 20-30 seconds
* Your shutter speed should be lower since there are numerous sources of light in cities
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Best targets for dense urban areas night sky photography
The best objects to capture from under a heavily light-polluted city area are the brightest ones: the sun, moon, planets, star clusters, and a few galaxies.
You can capture any of these targets from the window of your apartment. But, if you’re interested in shooting faint sky objects, make sure to follow the tips and steps earlier stated in this article.