Learning to capture the night sky living in a major city PART 1 An Introduction

The person behind my lens

So you make the decision to be an astrophotographer and capture the night sky!

The only problem is you live in a major city - like me!

Now I can't speak for all cities but I can speak for mine, where I live and how I manage to get out as much as I do in an attempt to capture the night sky.

Light pollution is the enemy and as such we need to get as far away from it as possible - again not easy living in a major city that is highly light polluted. Luckily, here in NZ, while the major cities are swamped in light pollution we are able to get to dark skies no more than 20-40 minutes outside of town. I suspect not many other cities and countries have this luxury.

The effects of light pollution on the night sky! Taken from a beach several km's out of the city and just look at the effect all the lights have on the night sky

In this series of blogs I will give you a peek behind the curtain of how I do it and along the way I will also delve into some basics of capturing the stars and nightscapes - oh and the other two photographic loves of my life - Bioluminescence and the Aurora Australis too! This is not meant to be expert tutelage and I am by no means an expert but I have learnt a bit over the years and the idea behind these blogs is to just help and guide you with some basics in the hopes that it helps you along the way and, like me, you fall head over heels with this thing we call astrophotography!

Let's start with a little introduction. Most people would know me as Chasing HorizoNZ on social media. This was the name I chose before I chose astro as the genre I would be most interested in capturing! At the time I captured mostly sunrises and sunsets and that is where the name Chasing HorizoNZ came from!

I started my astro journey back in September 2018! At first I attempted capturing a few images myself - epic fail - and once I realised how badly I sucked I decided to take a lesson - the best thing I have ever done and best money I have spent.

My first ever attempted astro image August 2018

Just a basic lesson on how to set everything up and settings etc. etc. along with some basic editing skills. While I do recommend more detailed lesson/s, a basic lesson will be enough to get you under way as it did me. Once I had a very basic understanding I was on my way. Roll on 6 years - more or less - and here I am! I do not regard my photography as good and as far as I am concerned my editing should be way better, but what I am good at is getting out there and experiencing things - you see the adventure and experience far outweighs the imagery for me although I would be lying if I said I didn't want to consistently produce good imagery - I may or may not be a bit of a perfectionist!

                                                                 My first ever milky edits including half a panorama 29 Sept 2018     

Behind the photography scene I am your average father of two, happily married to an incredible woman! I have a very busy job that requires long hours at work and a fair amount of stress that comes with that. So, what I am trying to say is if I can do it, anyone can! You do need an understanding wife and children - I do my utmost not to let my selfish passion and hobby get in the way of family life (hence why I go out when they are all asleep - you see where I am going with this, don't you) - and you need to dislike sleep...... alot!! When it comes to sleep, I firmly I believe I will get enough sleep when I am dead - there is just too much to see and do while I am alive! I do take my son with me on the odd adventure when possible and when he is keen but the crazy hours aren't great for a growing body and being a teenager now he has way more pertinent things to do rather than spend time out with the old man!

One of the best night's of my life experiencing this with my boy

Mangawhai Bioluminescence

So, I have been chasing the stars and nightscapes for a little while now and I am just as passionate about it now as I was 6 years ago - in fact even more so now. I have travelled a little bit around NZ in the pursuit of dark skies and a certain phenomenon we shall not name - not yet anyway! Along the way I have seen, captured and experienced life changing events and phenomena.

I do believe pure luck exists but it is very rare, in my opinion anyway. I believe, for the most part anyway, we make our own luck! People who are regularly lucky, in this genre anyway, don't get so by only being out every now and then or sitting on their backsides. My guess is, again for the most part anyway, these "lucky people" are the people you will find out there at every opportunity chasing, chasing and chasing some more until they get "lucky". That is not luck - that is passion, hard work and determination and that gets the results - put the effort in and the luck (results) will come!

My mantra is simple:

"If I am not out there I am missing the shot, and someone else is capturing it"!

And my favorite quote is from Wayne Gretzky, of all people, and it goes:

"you miss 100% of the shots you don't take" - it really is as simple as that!

If ever you are looking for me, look no further than very dark places under clear skies

The Great Aurora of May 2024 aka Mother's Day Aurora for me