![]() Stargazing can be a relaxing activity, especially with a friend or partner. The best way to scope out the sky is with a little stargazing. If you want to go any longer than that to get more details and color from the core of our galaxy you’ll need to enter the world of star tracker camera mounts.The night sky is magnificent and filled with so many things to discover. Settings will depend on your lens and camera, but with a full-frame camera on a tripod wearing a wide-angle lens (14mm or so) you’ll want to begin experimenting in manual mode with about ISO800-3200 and a shutter speed of about 25 seconds. Once you’re in place use PhotoPills, which has a useful Night AR feature that overlays the Milky Way onto what you can see – and also shows how it will move during the night. So head out somewhere really dark – using a light pollution map or choosing a Dark Sky Park or a Dark Sky Discovery Site – bearing in mind that some major National Parks that are also Dark Sky Parks now ban the use of light painting to illuminate foregrounds and rock formations at night. The Milky Way’s bright core around the constellation Sagittarius is only visible at certain times of the year, but you also need darkness. Read: How to photograph a meteor shower Wide-angle shot of the month: The Milky Way’s galactic coreĪvoid using light painting to illuminate foregrounds in Dark Sky Parks. Still, it can’t hurt to leave a camera in the backyard to take a few hours' worth of long exposures – you might just catch a ‘shooting star’. Read: When to photograph the moon July 29 and 30: Delta Aquariids meteor shower peakĪbout 25 meteors per hour may be possible around midnight tonight as this relatively minor meteor shower peaks, but since the moon will be very bright it’s not going to be easy. On Wednesday the crescent moon will be just 5% illuminated and close to Venus while by Friday it will be 15% illuminated and aligned with all three planets. With Mars and Venus sinking out of view and Mercury rising this week brings one last good chance to capture the gorgeous sight of bright planets around a slim crescent moon right after sunset. Read: How to photograph the stunning Perseid meteor shower July 19-21: Planets and a crescent moon The peak night isn’t until August, but you may start seeing sporadic ‘shooting stars’ while out at night. Read: The best lenses for astrophotography July 17: New Moon & PerseidsĪs well as being the date of the New Moon – the darkest night of the month – it’s also the start of the annual (and prolific) Perseid meteor shower. Check a moon phase calculator when planning any landscape astrophotography trip – this next week will have a waning crescent moon in the southeastern sky shortly before dawn. It’s an ideal time to get out and photograph the Milky Way, though some crescent moonlight can be helpful in slightly illuminating foregrounds. That leaves the night skies free of moonlight, which is perfect for close-up astrophotography. Today it’s Last Quarter (or Third Quarter) Moon, which sees our satellite half-lit from our point of view and rising after midnight. Read: The best cameras for astrophotography July 10: July’s dark sky window opens Catch it before it sinks into the sun’s glare later this month, preferably using a high frame rate camera on a telescope to capture it as a crescent. It’s ironic that it looks its brightest as it retreats to a slim crescent (it’s just 25%-lit this week) – which is due to its reflective cloudy atmosphere. Venus has been hanging about in the post-sunset twilight for all of 2023, but that’s about to end. You’ll need a telescope to capture the phases of Venus (Image credit: Jamie Cooper/Getty Images) Note that although it technically turns full on July 3, it will rise closest to sunset on July 2. Check your local moonrise time and the PhotoPills app and line up the appearance of the ‘Buck Moon’ with something interesting – a building, a mountain or a monument – for an unforgettable image. Perhaps more importantly it will rise at its most southeasterly point of the year as seen from the northern hemisphere, which may bring some novel opportunities to catch that all-important moment as it appears on the horizon next to an interesting foreground object. It will also be the first of four supermoons, though detecting a slightly larger (because it’s closer) full moon with your eye is almost impossible. Everyone knows that the sun reaches its highest in the sky as late June’s solstice, but have you ever thought about the moon? Since a full moon is opposite the sun with respect to Earth it follows that the ‘Buck Moon’ will be the lowest full moon of the year.
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