Astrophotography With A Camera Alone
We have plans on how to make a simple Barndoor tracker to help you get starpoint images on film. But what can you do with just a camera? With today's fast films (ISO 400 and higher), a suprising amount. Photographs that were once very diffiuclt can be accomplished with a good 35 mm camera with very little experience. Try it! It's fun and the the photos will look great on a den wall or observatory.
Equipment
Any camera with the ability to keep it's shutter open for several seconds. Normally, 35 mm cameras with a 'B' setting are used. A shutter release cable is nice, but not necessary.
How it Works and What You See
The main thing to know when trying a camera to shoot the stars by itself is that it will show the motion of the Earth about it's axis- the same thing we notice everyday as the sun rising and setting.
This is because to get good exposures where you see lots of stars you will need several seconds of exposure time, even with the fastest films (ISO 1200). During that time the Earth is turning, and thus, we get trails of the stars on our film. Below is a typical photo.
Notice that you can easily see color in several of the stars. In this photograph, the trail is broken up with gaps as I covered the lens with the lens cap at about 4 minute intervals. I kept it covered for about 1 minute. It makes for an interesting effect. This photo represents about a half hour exposure- that is, the camera shutter was set on B and then left open for a half hour.
The stars rotate about the North Pole of the Earth. So North is down in the photo.