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Two Great Comets |
It all
started way back on March 27 of 96 when the
approaching Comet Hyakutake was heading for a rendezvous
with Polaris, the North Star. On that night it came close
enough where the head of the comet would not distort even
if you took long exposures. I wanted to take advantage of
this rare occurrence with a wide-angle lens and shoot the
scenery of Sedona, where I live.
I started up two
Astronomy clubs in my area, the Sirius Lookers Club and
the Verde Valley Astro Club. The Sirius Lookers organized
a public star show at the local library on the night of
the pairing of Hyakutake and Polaris for an all night
viewing of the celestial event. The star show ended
around 12:30a.m. with a turn out of about 300 people,
which is great for our small community.
I finished packing up
my homemade ½ meter scope and headed for home. I
didnt go out until 2:30a.m. that night so that the
moon, which set around 2:00a.m., would not interfere with
the background sky. It took a full two hours of shooting.
I shot landmarks that people would recognize as being in
Sedona. The results were remarkable to my surprise. I was
fortunate to have a number of great shots with just one
roll of film; especially because I was a novice at this.
This, of course, excited me, but on the other hand, I
knew there was a bit of luck as well.
With the upcoming great
expectations of Hale/Bopp, I wanted to see if I could
repeat the same results. As an astronomer and having
guide lines as to the path of Hale/Bopp plotted for me by
Astronomy Magazine, I figured I could do test shots in
advance.
With this in mind, I
started shooting in June of 96. Even knowing in
advance where the comet lay in the sky, celestial
mechanics do not bow to weather conditions or stop in the
sky so you can shoot it at your convenience. I used many
styles of lighting to light up the scenery at hand.
Moonlight, city lights, flashlight, and even a portable
1½ million candle power floodlight were used in shooting
the may photos I was about to embark on.
After many test shots
were done, I chose to buy a high-speed fixed lens for
better quality and resolution. Fuji 800asa was my main
choice after experimenting with about a half-dozen other
films. Time exposure was the most difficult item to get
down to a science because of the many variables at hand
when shooting. Bracketing is always a rule of thumb when
shooting the night sky and this was no exception. My
exposures ranged from one minute to four minutes
depending upon the conditions that varied with each photo
shoot.
One major difference
between the two great comets, was the fact that Hale/Bopp
would not be near Polaris, which means you need to track
the sky for a clean image of the comet. I knew that I
would be working in the field, so a conventional
telescope would not work for obvious portable reasons. I
obtained a vixen equatorial camera field mount from a
friend. Weighing in at ten pounds, this was a most useful
tool in the field. Even so, total weight with all photo
gear in hand came in at 35lbs. Hiking up to 1½ miles in
the desert at night was still a major physical task to
overcome. The thought that I was attempting to capture a
moment in history made it worth the extra effort.
When all the cosmic
dust cleared, I realized that I had shot over 400 photos,
had driven over 3,000 miles, and had many sleepless
nights. Yet the rewards were still more than the
hardships.
There were many nights
that I spooked wild animals, including cows, small
rodents, birds, and deer to name a few. I was even held
at gunpoint by two police officers. A minute later a
police helicopter arrived overhead only to realize a
mistaken identity had occurred. Who says that astronomy
doesnt have its exciting moments!
I wanted to have a
natural portrait of the view that I saw and this could be
only accomplished by long exposures. One drawback is that
if you do too long of an exposure of the night sky, then
the landscape starts to blur. To give me an extra edge, I
intentionally used a wide-angle lens (28mm Minolta F-2),
to effectively give a grace period of 25-30 seconds
before image shift occurred. I decided to extend my grace
period with a new technique I came up with last summer.
This was a very simple
idea, but it did work. When I started the camera exposure
I did not start the tracking immediately, instead waited
25 to 30 seconds and then started the motor drive. In
this way, I effectively extended no image shift for up to
one full minute. Thereafter, any longer exposure would
show up as image shift on the scenery, but not in the sky
since the tracking was in progress. In simple terms, a
1½-minute exposure only has 30 seconds of blurring on
the landscape, while the star field above is in focus.
Having nights of such
profound views like the Milky Way with a very bright
comet in its midst on Indian sacred land with no major
city within two hundred miles was truly a sight to
remember!! This made all the extended hardships
insignificant, and if asked if I would do it all over
again, the answer would be YES in a lightspeed
moment.
-Dennis
Young
Dennis Young, Astronomer
P.O. Box 87 | Sedona, AZ 86339
Phone: (928) 821-3520
Email:
dennis-young@hotmail.com
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