Deep sky photography essentials

A telescope—since deep sky photography typically requires long exposures, having a telescope capable of tracking the object is very beneficial, and having one on a heavy-duty polar aligned equatorial mount is best. Add an F-mount camera adapter (optional, not sold by Nikon) used to connect the D810A to the telescope and maybe a cable release or wireless remote (see accessories listed at bottom of page) and you’re set. This camera imaging system is complete; the images are recorded to the camera’s memory card unlike many other camera designs used for astrophotography

Alternatively, you can use a NIKKOR super-telephoto lens, 200mm and longer, attached to the D810A as well, especially for lunar and planetary image capture. Again, a very stable tripod is recommended.

Your choice of telescopes will depend on many factors. There are many types of telescopes—most commonly used are either refracting or reflecting types. The difference is in the way each telescope gathers light. A refracting telescope collects light through a series of lenses. The light enters the telescope and is focused through a lens, onto a second lens, and so forth then through the eyepiece for the user to view. These telescopes are easier to maintain and are usually the choice for beginners.

A reflecting telescope collects light using mirrors, which bounces the light onto a secondary mirror and into the eyepiece. Some other designs use a combination of lenses and mirrors to capture and direct light. Generally refractors capture a smaller field of view, which requires more precise location and tracking, but the detail through quality optics is usually better.

In order to capture stars as points of light, you either need to use relatively short exposure times or place the camera on a telescope with a polar aligned equatorial mount. An equatorial mount allows the telescope and camera to be set parallel to the earth’s rotation. Combine this with a clock drive operating in the opposite direction, and you can effectively counter the earth’s spin and freeze your subject allowing for very long exposures without movement.

The tripod you use should also be sturdy enough to resist wind. These may be weighed down with additional weights or sand bags.

To ensure you don’t cause blurring of your images when you snap each shot, use a remote cord or wireless remote instead of pressing the camera’s shutter button. You could also use the self-timer button along with exposure delay mode, or Mirror Up mode with electronic front curtain shutter for the least amount of internal camera vibration.

When you’re using a camera lens instead of a telescope, remember to place the lens hood on the lens. It will help keep out extraneous light and also help keep dew from forming on the lens surface.

Nikon’s Capture NX-D software also offers an astrophotography noise reduction feature that will reduce the noise in photographs of stars and constellations without wiping out the pinpoint stars you’ve worked so hard to capture.

The workflow for processing photographs of H-alpha nebula, clusters, star fields and galaxies includes prepping the images (dark-frame subtraction, flat-field correction and compositing), image adjusting (levels, tone curves and color adjustments), and finishing (sharpening and smoothing) to bring out the detail and vibrant red colors. The processing of images is done using third party software.

Using wide-angle lenses to photograph constellations

Wide-angle lenses are also used in astrophotography, to capture wide vistas that include terrestrial foreground elements such as trees and mountains along with constellations or our Milky Way galaxy. Photographers who enjoy photographing star trails also use wide-angle lenses for these images, so they can capture the same objects in the foreground, oftentimes even illuminating the foreground elements using flash or constant light sources.

Some of the popular NIKKOR wide-angle lenses for astrophotography include: AF-S NIKKOR 14-24mm f/2.8G ED, AF-S NIKKOR 24-70mm f/2.8G ED, AF-S NIKKOR 58mm f/1.4G, AF-S NIKKOR 24mm f/1.4G ED. See the article on photographing the night sky to learn more about shooting these types of images.

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Using the D810A DSLR for Deep Space and Nebulae Astrophotography

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