Beautiful night sky colors

Captured this image late in the evening from Hosabettu Beach located in the west coast of Karnataka, India. It was a perfect evening during just before Christmas, with clear sky. I captured few time lapse videos of the sunset and have been experimenting with low light photography. 

In the background of this image on top is the dark sky just after sunset with starts and planets that are visible. What I love here is the different colors from orange to blue and then the gradual darkness as you see high above. If you look into the source of light then you will find two of them - one is the natural sunset and the other is from the port nearby which is to the left.

In the middle is the Arabian sea to the right and seashore to the left. Those bright light in the sea are from small fishing boats and the ship that are waiting in queue to enter the New Mangalore Port. To the left is the famous Panambur Beach, search lights from coast guard  and also the street light . You can also see the sea waves (seen as just a layer of water because of long exposure). 

In the foreground is the reflection of night sky and also the star/planet. Captured this image almost 30 to 45 mins after sunset. With no one in the beach after sunset, it was the perfect time to capture a photo of this kind. Used my tripod to capture this image in low light and long exposure photo, to avoid any blurring of image.

Camera: Nikon D600 Lens: Nikon 14-24mm FX lens (wide angle)

Settings: Tripod, 14 mm, 30 sec, f/20, ISO 2000

Surathkal Light house late in the evening

Even though I work in Bangalore as of this writing, I visit Surathkal (my home town) atleast once in every 1 or 2 months. I have seen people visiting this place in the evening as there is famous temple and a light house. But after sunset at around 7-8 pm you will hardly find anyone there. Even though I spent most of time time here in this place, I did not ever stay back after 7pm. Recently, I have been to this place with my Nikon D600 camera and a tripod along with Nikon lens. It was too perfect for me with clear sky and for me to experiment with low light photography. I had to wait for almost an hour to capture this with no one around, just the beam of light from light house. Also, I'm lucky enough to capture shooting star in the same image. I had captured this at around a distance of 500-750 meters from light house. Below is the image and camera settings that I have used to capture this low light photo of night sky along with the light house.

Camera: Nikon D600

Lens: Nikon 50mm FX prime lens 1.4D

Camera Settings: Exposure 30 secs, f/5, 50mm, IS0 800, No flash, Used Tripod.

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Canon EOS 60Da - DSLR for astronomy

Canon U.S.A., Inc., a leader in digital imaging solutions, today introduced the EOS 60Da Digital SLR Camera, a long-awaited successor to the EOS 20Da that is optimized for astrophotography. This DSLR caters to astronomers and hobbyists who enjoy capturing the beauty of the night sky by offering a modified infrared filter and a low-noise sensor with heightened hydrogen-alpha sensitivity.

The Canon EOS 60Da camera packs a powerful 18-megapixel CMOS sensor (APS-C) that produces sharp and high-contrast images of astronomical objects, a major enhancement over the EOS 20Da model's 8.2-megapixel sensor. The improved infrared-blocking filter is a modification suited specifically toward astronomy enthusiasts to achieve a hydrogen-alpha light sensitivity that is approximately three times higher than that of a normal Canon DSLR camera. This produces a 20-percent higher transmittance of Hydrogen Alpha line, or Hα wavelength, allowing astronomers to capture crisp, clear images of reddish, diffuse nebulae.

The estimated retail price is $1,499.00 and it is expected to be available this month.

Source: Canon

Shutter Speed

Shutter speed is nothing but the amount of time that the shutter is kept open or the length of time that your image sensor looks at the scene you’re attempting to capture. Shutter speed is measured in fractions of seconds. In most cases you’ll probably be using shutter speeds of 1/60th of a second or faster. The bigger the denominator the faster the speed (Example: 1/500 is much faster than 1/8). Lower shutter speed will lead to blur images because of camera shake. Camera shake is when your camera is moving while the shutter is open. Use tripod or image stabilization cameras when working with low shutter speed. Different selection of shutter speeds will yield different kind of visual effect on a final photograph. Generally, a fast shutter speed can freeze action while slow speed can blur your image. I would say keep experimenting the same shot with different settings to learn more.

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