Nighttime Neighborhood

Night Sky From Home

A few weeks ago, before our trip to view the aurora in Iceland, I began testing my camera for night sky photography. First, I discovered the camera did not focus at infinity as expected when the focus ring was turned all the way clockwise (when seen from behind). I need to nudge the focus ring twice slightly counterclockwise in order to have star images appear sharp.

Once the focus issue was resolved, I tried different exposure times to see when star trailing due to Earth's rotation would become apparent. With my 18-55 mm lens set at the smallest focal length for the widest view, I discovered hardly any star trailing during a 30-second exposure. So with an ISO setting of 1600 and exposures of 30 seconds, I should have no trouble capturing pictures of the aurora with stars in the background.

My neighborhood is not astronomy friendly. Glaring street lights, porch lights, and carport lights are everywhere. I walked up my street to a spot where trees block some lights. It can be relatively dark if I'm lucky enough to find a time when no house lights are on. For my first image I wasn't lucky. In the picture below you can see Ursa Major, the Big Dipper, framed between trees. Ursa Minor, the Little Dipper, is in the upper right. A strong, glaring carport light is partially blocked by trees during this 30-second exposure.

The next picture is also a 30-second exposure, but this time the carport light had been turned off. I also raised the camera a bit.

Quickly taking advantage of the extinguished carport light, I turned to my left to photograph the "teapot" of Sagittarius framed nicely at the bottom of the "V" between trees. Parts of the Milky Way, hazy and cloud-like, can actually be seen rising vertically to the right of the "teapot" in the following 30-second exposure.

I walked a few meters to my left where more lights were visible and Sagittarius looked like this with a 30-second exposure.

A 20-second exposure from the same location darkened the scene slightly.

In future posts I'll show how much more is revealed under darker Icelandic skies.