That’s night sky astrophotography when combined.

Well, unemployment has its many benefits. To be honest, its mostly all positive, with one clear negative:finances. But to be aware about completely forgotten aspects of my life, its surroundings, and strangely enough its inner works is self-enlightening. We will get to astrophotography in a second.

I am discovering things I used to dream about before falling in line with the way of the world. I have dreams, as I’m sure we all do, and most of us brush them under the rug for fear that they are not inline with expectations, whether from family, friends, or the general population, aka society. Possibly for simpler reasons on the need to make a living. The notion of “do what you love and love what you do” is not applicable anymore. For most, our work, careers, educational preferences and life strategies we follow are as old as the earth itself. We are a living example of the barter system at best. An exchange of our time, skills, commitment, prioritization and loyalty for paper given value by those who benefit most.

Writing is obviously one of those things I enjoy.I started a blog, haven’t I? I am more content writing things here rather than working on attracting visitors. But don’t fret, I am working on the physics of my fly trap for those who come visiting, to keep them here or at least keep them coming for more.

But this post is astrophotography related.

I have started to remember the nights I spent out with a small reflector telescope back in school days. It was heaven (where it was pointed) and mapping out the night sky was so engaging. The good old days when light pollution was used to pun an idea that did not sound real. “The Earth is flat,” says Marty.I sarcastically reply, “yeah Marty, it is as flat as the pollution that light causes”. Anyway, its so deep inside me, I barely remember what I did. I still remember a white tube with a lens bulging out from the side. Oh, and everything was upside down.Huh, good I never had to use it for navigation.

It is strange though. All content and photos of the heavens are really similar, but it does not feel repetitive, nor does it become less interesting. To be honest, I haven’t given finding a job a thought since, and I don’t even have a telescope! But that is strange, is it not?

Why are people so eager to spend loads of money on equipment so they can end up taking a picture of something that has already been photographed again and again and always looks the same if all conditions and post-image processes are consistent?

Imagine all those you follow on Instagram posting a picture of the same banana, with only the comment and zoom level being different. I mean, instarhea, no? Thankfully the heavens are no banana, and astrophotography can be excitingly challenging. Although this attraction cannot be fully explained, I will try to express in words the feelings as much as possible.

This is how emotionally heavy this hobby is.

Due to light pollution, one can literally tilt their head up at the night sky, and feel like their eyes are closed while a light is pointed at them – you see this orangy to dark reddish tint or something – and no stars in sight. And that is the first challenge an amateur night sky observer will try to overcome.

It is a feeling of discovering something lost. Playing around with a camera’s exposure and aperture to capture faint light reaching us from objects farther and bigger than we can fathom (usually the best solution is to drive out of urban areas to low light polluted areas). I mean, they are so hot, bright and volatile, they can literally obliterate everything we know in seconds if they took offense at our species trying to block them out with urban lights. It is really magical. That’s capturing them, not the obliteration part. That second one is scary.

I had my few runs trying to capture the Milky-Way with a DSLR, though its not your typical astrophotography target. I literally have hundreds of pictures from the same spot, with different settings, grouped into sets for stacking, and believe me when I tell you I have a favorite. This is how emotionally heavy this hobby is. The same person taking hundreds and more pictures of the same thing, and easily favoring one over others is truly remarkable. To most, all these pics look the same through swift observation. They are in a way, but to someone passionate about astronomy, they are worlds-apart different.

Earth rotation tends to keep objects in the night sky moving

To have more of the faint light hit the camera’s sensor we tend to increase exposure time, but these darn things keep moving. But what do you know, that’s another beautiful type of photo worth taking. Known as star trails. Here’s the first I ever tried to take. It was my last at the time of writing this too. Damn that light pollution.

So to counter the movement of the earth, special mounts are commercially available to do just that. The way to set it up is to look at these mounts as seriously as possible, and tell them where you are. If they listen, then when you point them at a star, that star will remain in the field of view, as the mount moves to counteract the earth’s movement. Pretty cool. These are exactly what one needs to capture deep sky objects with a telescope.

Astrophotography can be all about the imagination

There are great fiction stories in the world, and it is those who wander in their imaginations that come up with the greatest, and the weirdest too, I guess. Well, in astronomy, and specifically in capturing some of these wondrous objects, astrophotographers engulf themselves with imagining the forces at play, the significant scales, and the destructive yet creative processes; the intangible to be honest. It is a dimension where perspective fails us. Imagining what was and is going on in the heavens and putting together a mental picture of the little information we have to construct a scene slowly builds momentum much like the most basic of instincts. It is some type of mental arousal, and due to its grandiosity, it falls apart before the climax. It leaves us before we’re satisfied.

The brain cannot keep up with that scene.It eventually breaks down. Becomes incomprehensible. The inability to process any further than a certain point keeps those interested in astrophotography wanting more. We go again and again trying to capture things we have captured before. We want to make it better, maybe progress in imagining the forces and events a little bit more. Hopefully get more revelation and closer to a satisfying feeling of containing it all within. If cold causes a brain freeze, then to try to imagine the scale of things in space causes a brain crash.

Another way to explain is by asking ourselves, why did they call it “space cake”? Astrophotography is a type of high, and it can get addictive.

Beauty is not amiss.

It is indeed undeniable that the images of the millions of objects in our universe are beautiful and pleasing to look at. Yes, they are beautiful images, but “I’ve already seen a pic of it,” one can claim. I guess that is the hardest part to explain. Part of absorbing the beauty of these pictures is to be the one who captures it. One will always compare their work to others, as there will be more beautiful pictures by others, and so one keeps trying to capture a better one. Admiring these pictures comes with the hard work that goes into capturing them. Much like the satisfaction at the end of an art class where the drawing we end up with looks like a child’s scribble when compared to the reference piece, yet the feeling of accomplishment is overwhelming.

And as mentioned in that other post, the resulting pictures are combined with the artistic liberties of the photographer. It is quite personal and induces a journey within beauty and imagination.

Interesting so far?

So, if you are thinking of giving astrophotography a shot, stick around and I will be sharing my journey with all the ups and downs as I ride along.