A beginner’s guide to photographing the night sky in Seychelles |22 June 2021

The Milky Way above Mount Copolia (Photo Credit: The Creative Studio – Seychelles)

Photographing the night sky is becoming increasingly popular with advances in digital camera technology and with the ease of access to cameras, particularly those found on smartphones, it can be a very satisfying hobby. It is a great chance to get beautiful images of the Milky Way and the constellations.

Despite rapid urban developments on our islands in the last few decades, we can still enjoy the night sky with very minimal light pollution. Where the amount of artificial light is too much, we are only a short distance away to a more ideal location.

How to prepare for night sky photography

First of all, you will need a camera; this can be a small point and shoot camera with a small sensor, a Digital Single Lense Reflex (DSLR) or mirrorless camera with a large sensor, or a smartphone. However for the best low light performance and highest images quality, a full-frame camera such as the Nikon D850, the Sony A7III, or the Canon EOS Ra will deliver stunning images.

As you will need to gather as much light as possible, a long exposure is necessary, and so you will need to keep the camera as still as possible for several seconds. Use a sturdy tripod if you have one or rest your camera or phone on a stable surface while pointing it at the night sky.

If you are using a DSLR or mirrorless camera – go for a wide angle lens, the wider the better with an aperture of f 2.8 or less. This will allow you to capture as much details as possible and allow plenty of light to hit the sensor. If you are going to use your smartphone, unfortunately you may not have the flexibility to change lenses, but nowadays many smartphones have a wide-angle option to get a wide field of view.

How to find a good location

To be able to capture the faint light of distant stars, you need a clear sky and darkness – the darker the better. If you are on Mahé, aim to move away from Victoria and the nearby districts. The best locations are in the south and west coast of Mahé. For those on the inner islands such as Praslin or La Digue, light pollution is much less of an issue. However, that is not to say that you can’t get good images from light polluted areas.

It is also very important to avoid the moon, as moonlight just like artificial light from the urban areas can obscure the star light. The best time is when it is new moon. Use websites such as Time & Date to know the moon phases (https://www.timeanddate.com/moon/phases/).

For clear skies, you need a reliable weather forecast app such as our own met office (https://www.meteo.gov.sc/#/sevendayforecast) or other ones which show hourly predictions for day and night, such as Accuweather.com.

Camera settings

First of all you need to set your camera or phone to manual mode – this way you will have complete control over the shutter speed, aperture and ISO. It is also important to set your lens focusing system to manual and turn the focusing ring or focusing dial on your phone until the stars appear sharp. Set your shutter speed to around 15 to 20 seconds and the ISO to around 1600 or more if needed. Set your camera to the 10 seconds self-timer feature to make sure the camera is perfectly still after touching it, before it captures the image.

Shoot in RAW format and not in JPEG if your camera allows you to. RAW unlike JPEG is an uncompressed format that captures all the exposure details and allows maximum control while editing your photos later on. Some high-end smartphones can now shoot in RAW, so check your settings and be sure to use it.

After you’ve captured your first image, zoom into the LCD screen and check that the stars are indeed in focus. Also verify that the image is correctly exposed – this can be done by simply deciding if there is a good balance between the dark and bright parts of the image (for this make sure your LCD screen’s brightness is turned down low) or you can make use of the camera’s histogram, (again check the setting to enable this) and aim to have a histogram shape that sits slightly to the left of the middle and not too much on the extreme right or left, see image below.

Composition

Look for interesting constellation or star patterns and the Milky Way as the subject for your image. Also aim to include a few elements in the foreground such as palm trees and interesting rock formations – anything to add depth to your photo and also make it stand out from the other images of the night sky out there.

During the next few months, the Milky Way is perfectly visible over our night sky – it can be seen rising only a couple of hours after sunset, underneath the constellation of Scorpio when looking south-east and it stretches all the way to the west of the night sky.