Astronomy - low vision style

The night sky has always fascinated me. The fact that there are billions of stars out there at even longer distances away from us is truly awe inspiring. It DOES make you pretty insignificant in the grand scheme of things.

Having being "blessed" with low vision. (HA HA) doesn't hinder me from enjoying the starry night as one might think. True, I may not be able to spot the fainter specks in the sky, but the major constellations and even the Milky Way on a dark night is visible to me. I'm lucky that my night vision isn't as affected as my overall visual acuity.

Once the eyes adapt to the darkness, it is amazing what the human eye perceives. Finding dark skies, meaning void of urban light pollution, is a rarity in this modern day and age of mega malls and urban sprawl. The darkest parts of the sky is usually looking straight up. Cooler temps usually yield clearer skies than warmer evenings where heat can distort and haze up your viewing experience. Higher elevations in drier climates away from large cities is most ideal "dark sky" condition for viewing.

Viewing the stars with just your eyes is an awesome experience, especially if it is under dark skies. Telescopes are nice for deep space viewing, however, even a nice pair of binoculars is all you need to see a little further out than the unaided eye allows. Binoculars, or "binos" with large lens openings are ideal for gathering as much light as possible to bring you a clear, vivid image. You don't need extremely powerful ones either since there is kind of a sweet spot in which you get both good light gathering and resolution. I like the 7x50 for just that reason. The first number "7" is the magnification factor. You guessed it, seven times. The second number is the size of the objective lens. Larger the second number, the more light it allows in, and heavier too. Fog and waterproof models are also features to look for as well.

Photographing the night sky can be done without too much experience or specialized equipment. Modern digital cameras with manual exposure controls can yield surprisingly nice shots of the night sky. Sure, dedicated astrophotography cameras with guided motorized mounts are nice, but my humble Canon DSLR on a tripod works just fine.

Remember that the stars move across your field of view throughout the night. Well, the Earth is actually moving, but you get the idea. Long exposures over a minute usually start to show star trails. If you want pinpoint stars, try to keep your time under 20 seconds. Using normal to telephoto lenses magnify the movement, so even shorter times are required. If you want the long streaking star trails. You would need to leave your shutter open for at least a half hour.

A tripod and cable release for your camera is essential in eliminating camera shake. Also "fast" wide angle lenses are most ideal for capturing the wide expanse of the star field.

So dress warm and head out into the night air for some astro photography. Yeah, it gets chilly standing around under clear skies at night.