South Island Astro Photography Workshop

By Simon Forsyth

Twelve participants, along with a PSNZ representative, met at the Lake Tekapo Holiday Park on 27 May for the Astro Photography Workshop run by Joseph Pooley.

Joseph began by giving us a thorough presentation of the basics of the subject, including the different types of photography used. Following this, we gathered our gear and met by the Church of the Good Shepherd, planning to capture the Milky Way over the church.

We were treated to excellent weather with a cold but cloudless sky throughout the evening, and we all managed to obtain some excellent shots around the church. Headlights from cars driving by were a little annoying but fortunately, there weren’t many! We finished around 10:00 pm and returned to our motel units to process our work.

Saturday was a free day to explore the Tekapo area as we wished. Some went further afield, as far as Mount Cook. We regrouped at around 5:30 at the Blue Lake Eatery for a meal and catchup. The food and company were excellent! Joseph gave us the option of changing the plan for the night's shoot as there was an excellent chance we would get to see the aurora. We decided that we would do this instead of the planned shoot near the lakefront. After dinner, we gathered our equipment and drove to Mistake Drive and after a short walk we were able to see the aurora.

It was quite difficult to see. I found that the naked eye couldn’t see much colour due to our night vision relying on the rods which don’t see colour. With the aid of digital imaging in our cameras, we can quite easily get spectacular images that we can’t see unaided.

We spent two and a half hours photographing the aurora and we got some great images. I wish we could have required oncoming vehicles to turn their lights off, but such is life! Apart from the PSNZ Rep (me!) forgetting the hot drinks on Friday evening and the thermos breaking on Saturday evening resulting in no hot drinks, just some biscuits, we all seemed to have a good time and learnt something, I am sure.

On Sunday morning we departed for home, apart from at least one who decided to stay another night to explore the area. I would like to thank the instructor, Joseph, for his knowledge and patience with us; we all had different levels of photographic skills. I highly recommend this workshop to anyone wishing to learn about Astrophotography ̶ with Joseph as an instructor!