We will be spending 2 nights learning the fundamentals of low light photography, nightscape photography, Milky Way photography and even try out some Astrophotography by mounting your Canon or Nikon DSLR directly to the group telescope.

Day 1 - May 6th:

We will be meeting in the public parking of the Wateridge Housing Community in Sorrento Valley at 10:30 AM. 10368 Wateridge Cir., San Diego, CA 92121. We will get on the road at around 11:00 AM. Estimated travel time is 1 hour and 25 minutes, placing our arrival at around 12:30 PM.

When you drive in, follow the road to the right. The sites are marked by posts as well as being written in the parking spots themselves. We are in site #041/042.

Upon our arrival, we will begin to set up camp, pitch our tents, organize all materials, meet and greet, etc. After setting up, we can take a quick drive to the nearby store to pick up any necessary items and wood. Following that, we will drive up to the observatory to take some pictures in the area.

Upon our return to camp, we will set up the campfire and make some dinner. I will be bringing some food but probably not enough for everyone for 2 nights. It will be more fun to treat this as a potluck and have all bring something to the table. 

Through and after dinner, I will go over the fundamentals of low light photography, DSLR functions, explain the exposure triangle, talk about wide angle lenses, composing your images, light painting, milky way imaging & the importance of the Lagoon Nebula, star circles, time lapse imaging and give everyone starting settings for their cameras to begin imaging.

We will image the sky at different angles, facing different directions and with different foregrounds. Next we will do some Star Circles and finally get to Milky Way imaging. We will finish off our imaging session by doing time lapse imaging of the milky way.

See examples of Nightscapes & Milky Way.

Day 2 - May 7th:

We will begin the with breakfast around 8:30 AM. There are coin showers in the campground available. At 9:50 we will head up the Palomar Gift show to pick up our Observatory Tour Tickets. Tickets are $5 per person. Take some cash with you. After spending some time there taking photos we will head back to camp and prepare for the return trip, hiking! At approximately 11:30 we will begin our hike up the Observatory Trail, which ends at the Palomar Observatory just in time for the tour to begin. It is a moderate hike with some amazing vistas!! The total length of the trail is about 2.5 miles. Features include plants, wildlife, awesome geological structures and great landscapes!! Take a snack and have plenty of water!!

I use 3L Camelbak and recommend that or a water pack of some kind as to keep your hands free for imaging. The weather should be pretty nice on the hike. Have a good hat, comfortable/breathable clothing (NOT COTTON), and sunglasses. I will be bringing along sunblock and a first aid kit on the hike. One thing to note, the inside of the Observatory is kept at night time temperature, around 50 degrees. So have some warm clothes with you.

At 1:30 the Palomar Observatory tour will begin. The docents there are very knowledgeable and always willing to answer questions should you have any.

After the tour ends, we will make our way back down the trail back to the campsite. We should get back to camp by no later than 5:00pm to prepare for the night. Next I will talk about telescopes! The three primary styles, how to pick one, benefits, about optics, telescope eyepieces and accessories, how to set up at telescope with hands on experience for all, locations of night sky objects, basic navigation using the night sky, how to image planets, how to image deep sky objects and a basic rundown on the time it takes to process deep sky images. I have a list of interesting objects prepared for us to view and image, including Jupiter, Saturn, M51 - The Whirlpool Galaxy, M13 - The Great Hercules Cluster and more!!

I have telescope adapters for only Canon and Nikon cameras.

See examples of Astrophotography.

Day 3 - May 8th:

Wake up around 8:30 AM and enjoy breakfast and each other's company.

After breakfast we will be doing the Group Nightsky Photo Contest!! Everyone will pick 1 photo from all their own images and enter it in the contest without it being named (no one will know it is your photo). Then we will all judge based on certain criteria I have laid out. Owner of the winning image will get everyone's admiration and a prize!!

Next we begin to take down our campsite, capture some group shots and exchange information before saying our goodbyes.

Camp check out time 12:00 PM - Thank you and Clear Skies to you all!!

Note!!

I HIGHLY recommend that everyone have a remote intervalometer, plenty of storage space and batteries for their cameras. Please visit my Amazon Store if you need any of these item.s

Image Processing Class:

Learn how to process your milky way and nightscape images by joining us on Sunday, April 24th for the classroom portion of this workshop.

Full Details Here. Enter the Discout Code: SpaceCadet for $10 off the listed price!