Re: [APML]: Constellation photography

[Brian Halbrook <bhalbroo@mail.portup.com>]

The Astro-Photography Mailing List
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At 9:34 PM -0700 9/2/98, Michael Stecker wrote:
>I was once told by a fellow astrophotographer (Luke Dodd) that the way
>to get those large colorful bright stars in constellation photography was to
>defocus the lens for a short time during the end of a long exposure.  This
>would cause the bright stars to bloat and the color would also be more
>obvious.  Since the defocusing phase is short, the dim stars and deep sky
>objects would not be affected.  This seems like a cheaper and easier way to
>achieve the results that Akira Fuji shows in his photos.  Has anyone tried
>it ?

I believe this IS the way that Fujii achieves his "softstar" images.

Brian Halbrook                  <mailto:bhalbroo@portup.com>