Join Mike Shipman for a local introduction to astrophotography that can be accomplished with minimal equipment. If you have a camera, lens, tripod, and a remote shutter release you can set timed exposures with, you can do astrophotography. You can also use a smartphone, but I won’t be covering that option during this workshop.

Over the 3-day workshop, our first session will be a classroom overview of the process of astrophotography, a primer on identifying points in the sky, and a look at some astrophotography equipment – simple to complex.

The second session will be in the field making photographs in the evening. We’ll meet before sunset to get situated and ready for dark, discuss preparation and safety, then begin making exposures. In the final session we’ll process the exposures from the night before using free, easy to use, software specially created for astrophotography. This is a nighttime astrophotography session.

You’ll need a digital camera (DSLR or mirrorless), camera lens (wide angle or telephoto), tripod, and a laptop to process your images on. During the first class session I’ll provide you with the details to download and install the software. Wide angle lenses (10mm – 55mm) allow for some foreground landscape features to be included if desired, or to take in larger portions of the sky. Telephoto lenses (>100mm+) let you zoom into details, such as craters on the moon, nebulae, or galaxies.