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Astrophotography: Interpreting the Universe

Everyday we see images created by both professional and amateur astronomers depicting different aspects of the universe. This ranges from the humble images of the night sky we capture with our smartphones to elaborate constructed images of distant vistas. This evening we hope to give you a brief overview of how these images are created and what motivates the practitioners of this challenging obsession. Local astrophotographers will show you their favourite images and share some of the background behind them.

David Lee

David Lee is an avid photographer who over 20 years ago turned his camera upwards to the sky capturing astronomical images of the solar system and beyond. Through the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada he has been an advocate of astronomy and the sciences through its public outreach programs. Graduating with a BSc in Mathematical Statistics and Psychology from the University of Victoria he embarked on a 36 year career in Information Technology mainly supporting the technology behind land management and geographical information systems. In the early 90’s inspired by a weekend course on Archaeoastronomy he started the journey of many amateur astronomers. Starting with learning the night sky with binoculars, graduating to a number of refractors and eventually being captured by the astro-imaging bug. Always about the memories, he has always considered himself a tourist of the night sky. After retiring from the Information Technology sector he is becoming even more of a tourist of the night sky.

Comet Neowise, Alec Lee

This early morning image of Comet Neowise combined beautifully with Noctilucent Clouds, rare for Victoria. Taken with an APS DSLR and moderate wide-angle lens (24 mm), 3 sec, f7.1, ISO 1000. Processed with Photoshop 2020.

Milky Way, Alec Lee

The grandeur of the Milky Way presented itself beautifully on this dark, moonless night at San Josef Bay on Vancouver Island. And to have a meteor streak across the sky made it extra special. Shot with a full-frame DSLR, and ultrawide lens (16 mm), 25 sec, f2.8, ISO 1600. Processed with Photoshop 2020.

Orion Nebula, Brock Johnston

I was really happy with my Orion shot, It was one of my very early shots, and involved compositing 3 different exposure lengths.

North America Nebula, Brock Johnston

The North America Nebula & the Pelican, with great detail & nice dark nebula.

NGC3718 (Arp 214), Dan Posey

An interacting spiral galaxy (NGC 3718/Arp 214) and accompanying tidal streamers shot from Victoria BC with the 1.8 meter Plaskett telescope.

Rho Ophiuchus, Dan Posey

The Rho Ophiuchi cloud complex and the Blue Horsehead nebula, shot with a simple portable tracker, lens and DSLR combination from a dark sky location.

Annular Eclipse, David Lee

This composite is as much illustration as it is straight photography. The original photographs are lovely in capturing the event but in this composite I wanted to emphasize my memories of seeing my first annular eclipse.

Moon and Mars, David Lee

The orangey glow of the Moon rose above the horizon line only to merge with some dense clouds. We were likely to miss the re-emergence of Mars from the dark limb of the Moon but eventually the Moon emerged with the bright planet Mars.

Flame and Horsehead Nebula, David Payne

The Flame Nebula and Horsehead Nebula -Technology has enabled the amateur astronomer to achieve, what was once the reserve of professionals with massive telescopes, right to their own back yard with consumer equipment. You don’t have to go far from home to explore space through astrophotography.

Cave Nebula, David Payne

The Cave Nebula - Capturing the images through a telescope is only half the story. Image processing, through sophisticated software, enables addition details and dynamic range to be visible from the data – allowing the study of what makes space tick.

Moon shadows on Jupiter, John McDonald

Jupiter showing the progression of an event when two of its moons, Io and Ganymede cast shadows on the planet at the same time. The moons are seen as light objects and the shadows as dark spots on the planet.

Three views of Mars Opposition, John McDonald

Mars was close to earth during its Fall 2019 opposition when these images were captured using a high speed video technique. They show different features that appear as the planet revolves.

Eagle Nebula, Jonathan Ranallo

The Eagle Nebula, featuring the famous Pillars of Creation. This image was produced by imaging the nebula through narrowband filters with a mono camera, resulting in a false colour image that reveals the composition of ionised hydrogen, oxygen and sulphur in the structure of the nebula.

Lunar Eclipse, Jonathan Ranallo

The Moon during the January 2018 Lunar Eclipse. This single DSLR exposure captures the Moon as it passes through the shadow of our planet, illuminated by the red light of every sunrise and sunset on Earth.

Waning Crescent, Mike Nash

A single panel image made from a 3000 frame video file and a "grab and go" 4 inch refractor.

Waxing Crescent, Mike Nash

A 4 panel 3851X6868 pixel mosaic made from four 2000 frame video files captured with a 5 1/2 inch refractor and an astro camera using a 20mp monochrome sensor.