Blending Science with Photography

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I love science. Even during my youngest years, science captured my imagination. I suppose growing up watching those Walt Disney Man in Space program specials first broadcast in the late 1950's influenced my interest levels to such a high degree, I've never lost the fascination with all things scientific. Throw in Sputnik and the early years of the Manned Space program, and I was hooked for life.

Never really had the smarts to become a real, fully educated, scientist myself, but down deep lies a pseudo scientist who explores all kinds of amazing things...but, even today I enjoy watching programs with a scientific angle to it.

So how does one blend science with photography. Well, it is a matter of experimentation combined with observation of the results. Science and photography are a great blend of opportunity. There are so many ways to combine the two, it is difficult to truly define in detail all of them.

Photographing the moon is about the easiest way to break into combining science and photography. It is a big and bright subject and exhibits a different look every night.

Combine your observations and photography with Solar and Lunar eclipses and you will discover the thrills of our local celestial neighborhood.

Another exciting way is to photograph the night sky. The technical aspects of how to go about doing this falls outside the scope of this post, but there are numerous videos and articles about the subject available. The science part of the combination requires you to learn some basics about the night sky. Simple observations of the constellations is a great place to start. You can download any number of apps to help you navigate the night sky on your smart phone, or you can do it the old fashion way by using a star chart.

The next logical step is to find the Milky Way and photograph this amazing spectacle that lies just out of view from our visual abilities, but becomes a wondrous revelation a modern digital camera can capture with ease. Combine the digital camera with a tracking devise and you can accumulate the light of the night sky in such a way as to make it appear like a magical apparition.

Graduating to using a telescope/camera combination opens up a tremendous arena of deep sky objects to photograph. This area is a bit more advanced, but well within the capabilities of most photographers.

Science and photography can also be applied to the natural world. Macro photography, nature photography, weather photography, and underwater photography takes your photography into the fascinating realm of natures wonders. The idea here is to not just photograph things, but to dwell more deeply into the makeup of the world. Explore the complexity of the smallest of things, capture the majesty of a lightning storm, and explore the delicate beauty of a flower or the amazing agility of a hawk.

Learn about those smallest of things and what causes lightning to flash. Seek out the scientific nature of the different species of wildflowers and ecosystems they grow in, and the life history of migrating birds.

 Discover different ways to capture them to reveal the subtle flavor of how they are designed. You will improve as a photographer, an artist, and as a naturalist.

To me, taking the photograph is just half of the equation. The other half is understanding what I am photographing. I want to know why the Orion Nebula glows red. I want to identify the various structures of light, and gas, and nebulae seen within the Milky Way. I seek to discover the natural history of a nesting bird, or why a storm brews into a super cell. I look for new ways to use the equipment I have more effectively and to create techniques or DIY equipment to get the job done.

Combining science and photography is not just for scientist. All of us can learn more about the natural world through photography. All it takes is an inquisitive mind and a willingness to try.

Shooting the 2019 Super Blood Wolf Moon and Eclipse

The past two years Kentucky has been fortunate to witness two amazing celestial events. The full total eclipse of the sun last year (2017), and more recently the total lunar eclipse of the moon. Throw in the M46 comet and several meteor showers and you have full year of wonderful celestial magic.

Shooting the lunar eclipse known as the Super Blood Wolf Moon turned out to be filled with drama and exciting opportunity. For over a week leading up to the event the skies in Kentucky were overcast, cold, rainy, and generally miserable. The day leading up to the eclipse we received a couple inches of snow and the day of the eclipse started promisingly, but deteriorated into a gray white sky filled with a cold wind. By that evening, the sky was still cloudy, but about an hour or so before the eclipse was supposed to start, the skies began to clear, slowly at first with scattered remnants obscuring the moon. Just before the eclipse started, the clouds parted and the sky shined crystal clear with the Orion constellation hanging majestically in the southern sky and the full moon brilliantly riding almost overhead.

Over the next couple of hours I stepped outside to take few photographs, then came back inside to warm up, repeating the process until the last 20 minutes or so before totality occurred. That last 20 minutes I bundled up and braved the cold night air to watch in awe as the moon grew blood red across its entire face snapping images every minute or so.

Capturing images required some trial and error. I started off shooting in aperture priority at f/8 with an ISO of 100 allowing my shutter speed to drag along depending on the brightness of the moon. I ended up having to over compensate the exposure to allow for a short enough exposure to keep the image sharp. Before long, I had to change my tactics and shifted my exposure to a manual mode. This allowed me to shoot at f/6.3 and adjust my shutter accordingly to obtain the results I wanted. I shifted the ISO upwards to 1600 and began shooting around 1/4th of second alternating up or down to get different results. I also adjusted my camera into the Vivid mode which would enhance the blood red color effect.

As the moon approached totality, I was beginning to grow numb from the cold and decided to call it  a night. Certainly, the night was filled with magical celestial moments few take time to observe. The night sky is filled with wondrous visions and with the technology found within today's digital camera's almost anyone can capture those wonders. The Blood Wolf Moon Eclipse proved a highlight of the new season of observation.