Astrophotography??
Question by Time:
I was wondering if anyone in the astronomy section (like astronomers for instance) knew anything about the field/career of astrophotography? I'm an amateur astronomer and I like astronomy a lot, but I don't plan on being a scientist (I'm not big on physics & math - key components of professional astronomy).
I was wondering if anyone in the astronomy section (like astronomers for instance) knew anything about the field/career of astrophotography? I'm an amateur astronomer and I like astronomy a lot, but I don't plan on being a scientist (I'm not big on physics & math - key components of professional astronomy).
Either way, I do love photography and the local college has a digital photography program I was looking into. I would really like to consider a career in astrophotography and was wondering if there were any specific information about the field? I've seen several sites about it… but none really go indepth about career requirements.
April 18th, 2008 at 1:48 pm
you might wanna try asking this question to mike weasner, at weasner.com
April 20th, 2008 at 6:53 am
Sorry to disappoint you, but there aren't many, if any professional astrophotographers. It is not a career field per se. There are however, professional photographers who also do astrophotography and sell their work. Astronomers who do astrophotography largely do it for the science aspect or as a hobby sideline to their scientific research. Aesthetic astropictures have little scientific value and astronomers are more concerned with data gained from astrometry, such as measuring changes in star magnitudes as a result of possible existence of planets.
You are probably better off pursuing professional photography as a career field, but be warned it is highly competitive and you really must be good. If you do pursue professional photography you should specialize in something. Most profitable is advertising, but advertisers are extremely critical of their photographer's work and try to pay the minimum possible.
I've spent over 35 years in photography doing everything from freelance to architectural, medical, legal, weddings, science, etc. I finally gave up professional photography to focus on my photographic art. However, since the demise of film and the ever increasing use of CCD photography, I gave that up as well.
Most imaging I do now is strictly CCD astrophotography which I do for myself as a hobby, not to make money.
Good luck.
April 22nd, 2008 at 6:30 am
I don't honestly know a lot about the career end of it, I noticed you hadn't recieved any responses yet, so I thought i would mention a few things.
It is definately a hobby of mine as well, You can see some of my pictures on our night sky page at characterdefect.com, as well as a couple guys who call themselves amatures, but you'd never know it to see they're pictures.
I know of some people who have made a living taking photos for star atlas type books, and there also shouldn't be any reason why you couldn't freelance photos to astro photography sites or even sell good matted photos on ebay. I would buy them if I saw good ones that I like.
I don't believe that there are any requirements other than your ability with the camera. There are obviously tons of equipment choices out there and of course a wide variety of scopes that all have usefull purpose. (I am using a 200mm fl 8" scope with a meade DSI unit connecting USB to a laptop. I want to get a film rig also)
I guess the only advice I would be able to give you accurately is to start practicing, I took pictures for a while before I got any that I really liked, and keep looking in to any avenues available. By the time something pops up, with any luck you'll be a pro, and have a great portflio, not to mention, its a lot of fun to do. Good luck
April 24th, 2008 at 9:20 am
hey! i DID that job! i worked as a photo-tech in a small observatory for awhile. it wasn't very much fun as it seemed I spent most of my time teaching 'serious astronomy students' from the local universary, how to develope and print from plates.
probably the only place you are going to find a job like that is at a smaller observatory, as in larger ones the 'serious astronomy grown-ups' probably will be doing all the wet work themselves.
April 26th, 2008 at 11:44 am
There are probably only a handful of "professional astrophotographers" in the world, people who actually make a living at it. I can think of Terry Dickinson, Tony and Daphne Hallas, Jack Newton, and maybe one or two more. There are so many accomplished amateurs in the field, the difficulty of doing it well is so great, and the market is so small, that I really don't think it's a viable career choice.
April 28th, 2008 at 2:01 pm
First, you need a degree in Astronomy. Second, you need to learn to starve to death as Astronomers make little if any money- the starting Physics Major starts out at about 70,000 a year and the astronomers start out about 30- if they're lucky.
April 29th, 2008 at 1:22 am
There are several options for career choices in astrophotography, but you need to decide on what area you'd like to specialize. Working for companies that sell telescopes and astronomy equipment is a good place to start and need employees that know at least the fundamentals of astrophotography. Good way to become an expert at telescope manufacturing too. Once you learn this stuff REALLY well, you can become a consultant to people who want to set up their own personal astrophotography observatory and will pay you to guide them. If you've got good writing skills, writing books and magazine articles is a good way to earn some money.There are lots of specialized little areas like this that you should look at.
May 1st, 2008 at 4:49 pm
They are not called Astrophotographers, but imaging specialists.
The most exciting stuff happening in this field is in the area of space probes/ telescopes.
Each of the space missions has an imaging team attached to it which directs and processes the incoming images from the various missions.
An excellent example is the Cassini mission currently ongoing. Theirs is one of the few websites of this type that actually introduces you to the team. Check out the website "ciclops.org" and click on "team" it even gives a short bio of each team member so you can get a rough idea of their background.
If you send an e-mail to the team leader, Ms. Carolyn Porco, I bet she would give you some first-hand info about the subject.
Adolph