Photography of stars

Ever since I took my first photo of stars, I have wanted to capture better and better photos of the night sky. Cleaner sensor, faster lens, sharper optics… the race for light collection never ends. At the moment, I’m nearing the practical limit of light collection using photography equipment. The next step for improvement in light collection would be the Canon EF 50mm f/1.2 L, which costs 4 digits.

From this dodgy photograph taken 9 months ago,



...I have graduated to this:



Starz II

Click here for large size image
Super-Takumar 50mm f/1.4 over a Canon EOS 300D. ASA 200, f/1.4, 30s.

See, it's true- some stars burn hotter (blue/ white) than others(yellow).

Note, that mass of light is not sensor noise. The 100% crop below shows that they all have the same trail characteristics, indicating that the bright spots are all from celestial objects, the light smeared over the sensor as the earth rotated during that 30s of exposure.



The universe is big isn’t it?