Taking photos of the twilight or night sky is easy - most of the time - and don't quote me on that. You don't need any specialised equipment either, just leave the Laser Zorphod V3.4 UV-Light Correction Charged Photomultiplying T-shirt to the experts and have a much easier time. Of course the more you delve into the subject the more difficult, time consuming and the more it costs, but you don't have to worry about that to start with, or ever if you don't want to.

The Camera

There are two ways of getting great general shots of the sky:
with a DIgital Camera or a Single Lens Reflex (SLR) Camera.

With either camera you should have the ability to adjust the exposure time - which means having control of the shutter. Longer exposures are generally needed to let in enough light to actually get a picture! Some cameras have a 'T' or 'Bulb' setting which allows you to keep the shutter open for hours, but that's not necessary for general sky shots.

You will need some way of holding the camera still for taking the photos. This could be a tripod, which is generally the best because you can adjust it to any angle, but a bean-bag will do.

The Digital Camera

It's all so digital...

I have been using the Epson PC3000z Digital camera (pictured above) to take the following images. I have found that the great benefit of a digital camera is being able to see the picture you have just taken. You can then keep it or re-take it with a different exposure setting if need be. These photos were simply taken with the camera on a tripod. Click on any image for a larger picture and photo details.

 

Earthshine: the crescent Moon	Jupiter, Saturn & the Pleiades	The Moon & Venus	Jupiter & the Pleiades

Total Lunar Eclipse	International Space Station & Shuttle Atlantis

The SLR Camera