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Astrophotography means taking a photograph of an object hovering in space either with a point-and-shoot camera, a telescope, or any other instrument. The subject matter may include anything ranging from a moon to the Milky Way.

Astrophotography can further be classified into various subfields which includes Deep space, Solar system, Widefield Astrophotography, and Timelapse Photography. In the modern age of digital photography, it is more feasible to go for wide field astrophotography as it is within everyone’s reach.

As far as the equipment is concerned, a modern DSLR camera with good low light capabilities, a wide angle lens, and a good sturdy tripod will do more than enough. It is preferable to use a wide-angle lens with a large aperture like 24mm f 2.8 as this would help in capturing a wide angle shot and enable more light to enter into the camera, so that clear pictures can be shoot.

It is imperative that along with a clear sky and less pollution the chosen location can also accommodate a good wide angle shot.

Preferable settings for astrophotography:

Set camera lens to widest aperture (f/2.8 is better than f/4 or f/5.6)
Set the shutter to the 5 seconds
Set the ISO to 800 or 1600
Set the White Balance to Daylight/Sunny or put it to Custom as per the requirement.

This basic knowledge will equip you to take good quality night sky images.

Feature Image Credits: Jeremy Thomas

Akarsh Mathur

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Sandeep Samal

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1. Use the loos at Barista/CCD/Whatever Random Coffeehouse Bagged That Prime Real Estate Near Your College. In the event that you start feeling guilty about the fact that you’re using their facilities without buying anything, remember this: they’re charging you 50 bucks for a cup of coffee with cream.

2. In the likely event that the urinals in your college don’t have partitions (or had partitions that were stolen and sold off in the lucrative granite chor bazaar) remember to follow the ancient Code of the Samurai with the Small Bladder: Rule 1: Look straight ahead. Rule 2: Look STRAIGHT ahead. Rule 3: This never happened.

3. Hold it in and distract yourself by fantasizing about Jessica Alba/George Clooney/ Both if you’re into that kind of stuff. Alternatively you can perform certain exercises involving stamping feet and pumping hands if you don’t mind the entire class thinking you have an epileptic fit.

4. You can train yourself using a combination of Zen meditation and Israeli military training to only have to go once between solar eclipses. This may or may not involve a 3 year coma, but it’ll be hard to distinguish from actually sitting through a history class.

5. You can use a number of drugs to trick your body into believing that it has no larger intestine. This may result in a few unpleasant side-effects such as your lungs turning into jelly but that’s just one of the hundreds of the trade offs you have to make in life.

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