Hacking Photography - one Picture at a time
Of all the planets found in the Solar System, only five of the brightest planets – Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn, can be seen with the naked eye.
While all five of these planets can be seen throughout most of the year, as of this morning they can all be seen simultaneously as they (mostly) align diagonally in the early morning sky.
Last time this happened was over a decade ago, so ready your cameras and plan your shots.
How high must your shutter speed be in order to photograph an object traveling at 17,500 mph while crossing another object moving at 2,288 mph? Not very high actually, when the nearest of the two objects is over 200 miles away and the other is over 225,000 miles away. However, you must be prepared well in advance and ready for the action as you will have less than one second to get your shot!
Gadi Eidelheit of Venus Transit did just this when he captured some rather rare footage of the International Space Station crossing in front of the moon.
While we’re usually given a fairly early warning on when to expect an eclipse in the sky, or a meteor shower in the middle of the night, this is a pretty different situation. According to NASA, there’s a meteor shower headed our way late tonight – Friday- into Saturday Morning; the shower itself has never been visible to us before. It’s an entirely new swarm of meteors; remnants of a comet called the Camelopardalids.
Ever seen those pictures where the stars streak across the sky in a big arc? Or maybe the whole sky looked like it was spinning?
What you saw was star trails. The streaks were light left behind on the sensor or film from the star as it traveled across the sky in front of an open camera shutter. In fact, it only seems that way. What actually being recorded are stationary stars and the rotation of the earth that makes them spin. Kinda like you were standing on a vinyl record while it is playing. (yes, vinyl record, it is a form of ancient iPod).
For me, the images seem to have a certain magic or mystery about them. You must have heard a photographer talking about capturing that perfect moment in time. Well for capturing star trails you will need to capture the perfect hour or two in time. For such amazing looking images the technique to capture them is really quite simple. Keep reading for a complete set of instructions from start to finish.[Read More…]
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