My little astro-photo workshop!!

Excellent! New pics for the December slide show, Sumitra!

I'm a little surprised you didn't burn down the windmill: what was that? A mega-Catherine wheel?

Thanks Andy!! It's been too long since the camera was out at night!!

I’m a little surprised you didn’t burn down the windmill: what was that?

The propelling rockets we installed on the windmill of course!! 😉

More seriously, it was Steel wool, which we put into a whisk that was attached to a cable. You light the steel wool, then spin it around you! Some instructions here and in a video here!

I thought I'd share some of the best quotes of last night because they still make me chuckle:

"The stars just keep moving!" on the most indignant tone!

"Where is the ISO button on my camera! I can't see!"

"Where is my camera!"

"Would you just stop blinding me with your torch!"

"I'm so cold! I forgot my gloves!"

Now that is creative! Great work Sumitra. Sound like it was a very enjoyable workshop that you hosted, well done!

Very good timing too because I bought a couple of eyepieces today, so you wouldnt have got clear skies if you had left it any later 🙂

Now that is creative! Great work Sumitra. Sound like it was a very enjoyable workshop that you hosted, well done!

Thanks Tej!! I will want to do more of those fireworks, it's quite fun!

The workshop was really good I think, and they asked for more! I was quite pleased!

Very good timing too because I bought a couple of eyepieces today, so you wouldnt have got clear skies if you had left it any later

Darn it! Whyyyy! I am hoping next Saturday looks nice for another one. Can you please return your purchases? 😉

There are a lot of people who missed the invite and were disappointed.

Congrats on the photos, Sumitra and also for making it to Flickr Explore again!

Great to see that you're running practical sessions for the camera club... you must do something similar for Flamsteed one day. Our event at Standen National Trust went well on Friday evening, but we had to stay indoors because of the weather... so lots of chatting about the night sky and astrophotography, but we couldn't actually do any! If only it had been on the following night!! Sod's law.

you must do something similar for Flamsteed one day

Yes please to that!!!

These are really great photos. I love the playful creativity in what you've achieved, especially with the steel wool! Not heard of this. Amazing! I probably would burn down the windmill… Probably safer for me not to be let loose with blazing objects but it does sound like A LOT of fun!

Congrats on the photos, Sumitra and also for making it to Flickr Explore again!
Great to see that you’re running practical sessions for the camera club… you must do something similar for Flamsteed one day.

Thanks Mike! It took a while for the skies to clear on a convenient day but we got there!! And there is demand for more. I was hopeful for next Saturday but I just saw Tej has been shopping. GRRR!

I'd love to do something for Flamsteed too! Let's organise that soon!

Our event at Standen National Trust went well on Friday evening, but we had to stay indoors because of the weather… so lots of chatting about the night sky and astrophotography, but we couldn’t actually do any! If only it had been on the following night!! Sod’s law.

What a shame about the weather. Originally we were planning to go Friday but fortunately we could swap days unlike you. Ah well. In any case, I think I will also need an indoors day to talk about post-processing as we did not cover that in the fields ;). But as they're all experienced photographers, I think they should work it out.

Yes please to that!!!

Ok Ok!!! But I don't want to step on Rupert's events!! Though mine would be more about the basics and doing silly things 🙂

These are really great photos. I love the playful creativity in what you’ve achieved, especially with the steel wool! Not heard of this. Amazing! I probably would burn down the windmill… Probably safer for me not to be let loose with blazing objects but it does sound like A LOT of fun!

Thank you Christina! I am only going to take credit for composing the picture and its title. The fireworks are Damon's thing. He showed me how to do it though, so happy to do it on Blackheath. Perhaps we could use it as a deterrent against... 😉 just kidding.

I'd not keep scopes too close to them though as particles of wire wool could fly off into the equipments, which wouldn't be great.

Good news Sumitra, I had to send the filter back, they sent wrong size. As a result, Friday and Saturday looking clear!

Bad news...its a bloody full moon 🙁

Good news Sumitra, I had to send the filter back, they sent wrong size. As a result, Friday and Saturday looking clear!

That's fab Tej!!! I'm so glad they did!! 🙂 I'm doing another workshop tonight, very excited!! There was so much demand!

Bad news…its a bloody full moon 🙁

Well, we'll go anyway. We'll do some spiky moons. :p We can't be too picky!

You will all be so proud of me!

I have turned 4 more photographers into budding astrophotographers tonight! I think I ought to be called the Foxy Coxinette of the Brighton and Hove Camera club!

And look at screenshot, there is so much demand stillll!! Also, it seems some fresh astrophotographers from last week are out of their own free will, wandering out in the cold on their own to take pictures of Luna!!

It was fantastic, one of the photographers who is very experienced with Flash photography brought a flash gun and we experimented with portraits with stars. We all got turned into saints (this will become more obvious with the pictures. I will post links later as it was with his camera!

Luna was in the way but after I showed everyone the basics, they all started playing with the Moonlight on the windmill etc.

Something magical happened. I am not sure if there is another word for it. After 2 and half hours of taking photos, one photographer who had said he could not feel his toes or fingers any more exclaimed he'd just warmed up and unpacked his camera from his bag again! This happened after seeing a picture of Jupiter + 4 Moons on my camera. Very hot photons these must have been!

Mike, I've got plenty of ideas about things to do with Flamsteed after these workshops. Do you have a flashgun by any chance? I need to practice more and then we could try something on Blackheath?

See you all tomorrow!!

Oh yes and best quote of one of the photographers tonight!

"I'm all warmed up! [sets up camera again] Where is it, did you say?? [... takes picture] I've just taken another shot just to be able to say I've got Jupiter in it"

^_^

Here you go! Damon was super quick!!

We're the Holy Astrophotographers! My idea after Damon played with his torch trying to create frame around us 😉

Holy Astro Photographers!!!!!! by Damon Hart, on Flickr

And that is me, by Damon, while practicing!

Sumitra by Damon Hart, on Flickr

Fantastic, Sumitra. Really well done. You're doing a great job down there in Brighton.

The photo of the "Holy Astro Photographers" is genius.

Mike, I’ve got plenty of ideas about things to do with Flamsteed after these workshops. Do you have a flashgun by any chance? I need to practice more and then we could try something on Blackheath?

Certainly have. I've probably got at least 3 if I dig around. One very powerful, the other two less so.

It would be great to do something similar in our area. Trying to inject some fun into astrophotography is what I'd really like to do. It's so easy to get wrapped up in the technical stuff, that you sometimes forget about having fun as well!

Fantastic, Sumitra. Really well done. You’re doing a great job down there in Brighton.

Thanks, Mike!! Much appreciated! I'm so pleased! I think it is wonderful they are all so interested in trying something so different to what they are used to.
It is so funny, most of them have all these expensive kits, most of them have full frame cameras and I keep hearing "Look at all these stars! I thought we needed special things to do Astrophotography."

The photo of the “Holy Astro Photographers” is genius.

Damon called me earlier, he sounded dismayed asking what on earth I'd done as he was having thousands of views and large amount of favourites on his photo! I posted it in various places and it's gone onto explore!

Certainly have. I’ve probably got at least 3 if I dig around. One very powerful, the other two less so.

It would be great to do something similar in our area. Trying to inject some fun into astrophotography is what I’d really like to do. It’s so easy to get wrapped up in the technical stuff, that you sometimes forget about having fun as well!

Great! We can try to do these portraits then!

It's not for the purist though, we got properly blinded with the flash tests and I suspect some might get a little annoyed. But that can't be helped.

I agree about injecting some fun as it is an effective way to get more people interested in braving the cold nights for a long period of time! I think it's a great way to apply technical principles into producing some fun photos and making the evenings more memorable!

We can discuss some options this evening and perhaps organise something in the new year!