ABSTRACT
286At long last, the moment has arrived! You’ve reached your shooting destination with all your knowledge of astronomy and photography, your equipment, empty memory cards, freshly charged batteries, and, of course, your detailed plan. Let’s describe how you might prepare for the night’s events, Figure 19.1. The most important thing you can do is to visit your prospective shooting site during the day. I can’t emphasize the importance of this step enough! You’ll be able to confirm the orientation and predicted appearance of night sky objects relative to actual foreground subjects. You can test foreground compositions from specific shooting positions. You can explore the effects of different tripod heights and lens focal lengths. Also, you’ll have the opportunity to carefully review your shots prior to the evening to select those that best fit your pre-visualized image. Finally, you will gain an appreciation for the time required to travel from your car to the shooting location, and the degree of physical exertion required to do so. Daytime reconnaissance will allow you to greatly speed up the process of setting up later that night or the following morning, since you will already know precisely where to go, and how to set up your equipment.
