Preface
Landscape astrophotography combines compelling landscape subjects with carefully choreographed night sky objects. This book explains the science behind the art of landscape astrophotography in clear and easy to understand language. The goal is to help you learn how to successfully plan and create your own nightscapes of the Milky Way, star trails, the Aurora Borealis, and much, much more. The unique approach of this book is its coupling of the underlying principles of astronomy and photography through practical, step-by-step methods to provide you with all the tools you need to fulfill your artistic vision. Without this knowledge, an inefficient, time-consuming and often frustrating ad hoc, trial and error approach is the only alternative to gaining expertise and proficiency in landscape astrophotography.
The theme of this book is preparation. Understanding the basics of astronomy will give you deep insights into the “why” of the appearance or absence of the Milky Way, the moon, specific constellations, and more. Learning the relevant fundamentals of photography will enable you to adjust your camera’s settings for perfect exposures of the night skies. Thorough planning and preparation will guide you to the right place at the right time and with the right equipment and experience.
Far more than a cookbook of recipes, this book delves deeply into the causes for the effects that you observe. This is accomplished through copious examples, detailed explanations, illustrations, field charts, and case studies. By mastering this knowledge, you will be able to predict with certainty, months and even years in advance, what you need to do; and when and where you need to go to create almost any new nightscape image you can imagine.
A specific goal of this book is to recognize and showcase landscape astrophotography images generously shared by prominent astrophotographers from locations around the world. Their images will both inspire you as well as illustrate why geography-dependent differences may arise. For example, you will see why the height of star trail circles depends on the latitude of the observer, or why certain constellations are only ever visible in either the Northern or Southern Hemispheres, regardless of the season. More frequently, however, you will see that all observers of the night sky have much in common, regardless of their location. The presence of the Milky Way, the appearance of the rising full moon, the movement of the stars, the glorious colors of sunsets and sunrises, meteor showers—these are nighttime phenomena we all experience, regardless of international boundaries. You will gain a deeper appreciation of what you may accomplish from wherever you’re reading these words by studying these images from different global locations.
Finally, it is a great pleasure to present a select group of iconic images from the most renowned landscape astrophotographers in the Distinguished Guest Gallery. It is an honor to include their images in this book. I greatly respect their generous spirit of collaboration and deeply appreciate their willingness to do so. I hope you will enjoy viewing these extraordinary images and find them motivating as well as aesthetically satisfying. Landscape astrophotography has advanced rapidly in recent years owing in no small part to the creativity and ingenuity of these well-known pioneers. I wish to personally thank each of them for creating and sharing these remarkable images with you, the reader.
My hope in writing this book is to convey my love of nature, photography, and especially the night skies. Through it, I hope that you, too, may gain a deeper appreciation of our incredible universe each time you step into the night.