In the quiet winter months, it seems like the darkness comes earlier all the time. Why not make the most of it?.
Taking a few moments to look up at the sky is a wonderful way to both relax and be awestruck at the same time. Just ask Talbot county local D.J. Van Bourgondien, who turned his childhood fascination with space and stars into becoming an amateur astrophotographer. While it may seem like an intimidating skill, he assures it doesn’t take much more than patience and wonder to start looking to the skies.
His journey into staring at space began simple enough.
“My parents had a deck and open skies, and we would always make it a point to go out during the meteor showers with blankets and hot chocolate when it was freezing and see how many we could count,” Van Bourgondien says. “As I got older, I only became more interested in what was out there.”
COVID was a turning point for many people for many things, and for Van Bourgondien, it was the coming alive of his astrophotography passion.
“I classify myself as an explorer in general, and I get really antsy when I can’t,” he said. “When COVID locked us all home for such a long period of time, I figured ‘I may not be able to see the world right now, but there is plenty to discover right over my head if I just look up,’ so I decided to take a more serious approach to seeing what I could discover or see/photograph for myself.”
To get going, he says, “I purchased a fairly entry level go-to computerized telescope, and I remember the first time accidentally stumbling across a hazy spot in the sky, and realizing that I just saw the Orion Nebula with my own eyes, I was hooked. I wondered at first why it didn’t look like the pictures I saw online, and was determined to figure it out. I fumbled with my smartphone camera to try to line it up with the eyepiece in the telescope and I took a 5-second exposure (by accident, the phone went into night mode), and tried to hold my breath so I could hold it still, and “BOOM!” there were colors there that I couldn’t see!”
To start scanning the sky yourself, his first advice is to be patient.
“Space is big. Really big. However, from down here on Earth, it seems even bigger,” he says. “Trying to find things in space can be really tricky at first, especially if using a higher powered telescope or lens. Use the constellations as a road map, especially the ones with the brightest, easy to spot stars. You’ll be surprised at how fast and easy it is to learn the night sky with some practice!”
When you are starting out, he also suggests looking for star clusters. For winter months in our area, his suggestions are looking into Messier 13, the great Hercules star cluster, or Pleiades all which can be gazed at using binoculars or just your eyes.
For reference and guidance, there are several mobile apps to assist. Astrospheric is a free app that plans dark sky conditions several days out, and can give you an idea for the best nights of the week that weather, atmospheric seeing (the turbulence in the upper atmosphere that can distort what we see from earth), and transparency are best, as well as giving a future outlook on when the clouds will clear out and for how long.
Another of his favorite apps is Stellarium, also free. It allows the user to hold his or her device up to the sky and will align itself with what you are seeing to show you where constellations are, and even allows you to zoom in almost indefinitely on deep sky targets. Van Bourgondien recommends it for beginners just learning the sky or for advanced astrophotography planning. Like Astropheric, it can show you future times of where things will be in the sky, as well as field of view calculators. He also enjoys the zoom feature in the app to see things when it is cloudy.
After a bit of practice spotting the stars, you may want to capture the moment as Van Bourgondien started to do which also offers a different look.
“What you see in the sky isn’t exactly what you are accustomed to thinking things actually look like or seeing in movies and TV,” he says. The color cones in human eyes have evolved to process and see what we see everyday through earth’s atmosphere. The first time I saw nebula with my eyes it was still really cool, but galaxies and nebulae look like hazy spots in the night sky. In order to see them in their full glory and colors we have to let cameras translate that for us, usually through long exposures. For a better look, try holding your smartphone to the sky (very still or on a tripod), and take a longer exposure and you’ll be amazed at what you can see!”
Van Bourgondien recommends setting your phone face down on a surface so it stays completely still and on its widest setting. Taking the longest exposure your phone will allow, up to 4-5 minutes is key.
“This is a neat trick that just about anyone can do to get a great image of what the milky way really looks like if our eyes could process it outside of our atmosphere,” he says.
As for browsing and sharing amateur astrophotography, Astrobin.com is an “outstanding gallery of amateur astrophotography with thousands of members worldwide,” Van Bourgondien says, and it’s where he shares some of his own work under the username Deeje7.
“If you ever wanted to see what was in the night sky, this is the place to see amazing works from all different levels of photographers, as well as some with observatory grade quality. Some images contain 100’s of hours of work per photo,” he says.
If you’d like to get social, keep an eye on your local nature centers for stargazing events in a group, as they often offer pollution free skies. Adkins Arboretum in Ridgely will be offering New Moon Stargazing on March 9, where registered participants will view “bright clusters and nebulae!”
The Chesapeake Bay Environmental Center in Grasonville will be hosting its second year of “Astrogaze Nights” with Andy Lomax, a retired naval oceanographer and former Deputy Superintendent of the U.S. Naval Observatory. Bring your binoculars if you have them to the remaining sessions on Feb. 15, March 16, April 13 and May 13.
As for an online community, Van Bourgondien suggests the online community Cloudynights.com as a discussion board for people on almost all topics space related, from visual astronomy, to equipment, or astrophotography. In fact, he says he has been completely self-taught from what he’s learned online whether it be YouTube, forums, or Facebook groups. He and other enthusiasts are always willing to share what they’ve learned, and continue to learn themselves!
Whether it’s to clear your mind or bond with family, embracing the skies this winter season can also leave you enraptured.