Equipment required for night sky recording

[PDX Ghost Hunter]

Next summer we will have a very large sky watching event in Scotland and are looking into what equipment is needed to video tape the night sky so that the stars, satellites, planes, etc will show up on video.

I realize the camcorder needs night vision/IR capability but the range on consumer camcorders is about 6 feet and even with an attached IR light we're talking less than a 20 foot range and we need to see the night skies.

I assume some sort of night vision adapter needs to be purchased and screwed into the lens or something along those lines.

If anyone can supply me with a list or links to what is needed to video tape the night sky it would be greatly appreciated.

[jagabo]

I realize the camcorder needs night vision/IR capability

No, not at all. You expect a IR lamp to illuminate a plane at 30,000 feet? Or a galaxy a million light-years away? Go get the brightest spotlight you can find and try to light up the Andromeda galaxy. Be sure to wait 5 million years to see the reflected light! * Then there's the inverse square law. After your light has traveled 5 million light years the intensity will be nil. Even with a "near" object like a plane at 30,000 feet, the reflected light will be nearly nothing.

What you need is a camera with very good low light sensitivity and very little background noise. Otherwise the small amount of light entering the camera will be drowned out by background noise in the CCD. You want the biggest wide angle lens you can get. The bigger the lens, the more light enters the camera, the better the signal to noise ratio is. Then you use long exposure times -- seconds, maybe even minutes.

* the Andromeda galaxy is 2.5 million light years away. If you shine a light on it the light will take 2.5 million years to get from here to there. Then another 2.5 million years for the reflected light to return to Earth.

[Steve Stepoway]

If you wanted to video the people who are there, then night vision/IR capabilities are important. Unless you wanted to wait until everyone's eyes are nicely dark-adapted, and then turn on your video light. That would get the crap beaten out of you.

[TreeTops]

Jagabo ...
1 light year = 5.87849981 × 10 to the 12th power miles

[jagabo]

Jagabo ...
1 light year = 5.87849981 × 10 to the 12th power miles

What's your point? It's a long way?

[jagabo]

Also, don't confuse expensive FLIR systems with cheap infra red illumination systems. FLIR uses ambient infra red radiation. For example, warm people or a hot tank emit more IR than the cold background at night. Without any additional lighting an FLIR camera is sensitive enough to "see" them.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forward_looking_infrared

Cheap IR sensitive cameras require an IR lamp to illuminate the scene. Basically the same thing as using a flood light, except it's invisible (to the human eye) IR radiation, not visible wavelengths.

[Khaver]

The best method would be to use a DSLR with an intervalometer so you can capture pictures at set intervals for several hours and for a long (multiple minutes) shutter speed. Then use a program to combine the sequence of pictures into a video. If you want a video without the streaking stars that long exposures from a locked in place camera gives you, you will need to mount the camera on an equatorial clockwork mount synchronized to the earths rotation.

[PDX Ghost Hunter]

I'm not looking to see into the cosmos or across the galaxy. I'm basically looking to be able to record what the eyes would see with a little zoom ability. I don't need an infrared telescope, I just need to be able to record what the camcorder can see but at night with nothing more than the moon and starlight available for light.

Here is a photo of the sort of thing I am looking for.

[jagabo]

Not like this?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KySThq5CxLI&feature=related

[Khaver]

Funny your example picture shows a triangular formation of lights. Back in the 90's my wife and I saw a group of satellites moving across the sky in exactly that formation. We thought it might be UFO's or ultra-high flying aircraft because we weren't aware of any satellites in a formation like that.

[PDX Ghost Hunter]

Here's another image that is what I am looking to be able to do. I've seen shows on television where they accomplish this but they never mention the equipment they are using. I'm only looking to be able to record what is in the sky from say airplane altitude on down or so. Not looking to see into space per se.

[Khaver]

For images you've shown you need an image intensifier. Very expensive (several thousands of dollars).

[PDX Ghost Hunter]

I will look into the image intensifier. Just looking for a list of things needed like type of camcorder, 3rd generation night vision monocular, etc. I have no idea how a night vision scope/intensifier attaches to a camcorder and what the specifics are in regards to the camcorder itself.

Thanks