Introduction to Night Sky Photography, 2025

Thursdays, 7:30 – 9:30 PM
May 8, 15, 22, 29; June 5, 12

Stan Honda

Learn how to shoot the stars! This course will cover photographing the night sky and landscapes with a digital SLR or mirrorless cameras and ordinary lenses (not through telescopes). Learn to shoot well composed and exposed starscapes, night sky landscapes, the moon and astronomical phenomena. This will be an in-depth course about wide field night sky photography.

Requirements: a digital camera (DSLR or mirrorless) with interchangeable lenses (point and shoot cameras won’t work) and a tripod. Basic knowledge of photography and workings of camera. Basic knowledge of image processing software (Adobe Photoshop/Lightroom recommended, but not a requirement).

We will do two field trips in the evening to Central Park where participants will bring their equipment (camera, lens, tripod) and learn techniques in the field. Please be flexible with the field trip dates as weather could change the schedule. There will also be optional in-class critiques of images taken during the course.

Here is a synopsis of the course. Note new times: 7:30 – 9:30 PM

May 8 – Why night sky landscapes? Composition, visualization, storytelling. Naturalistic view. Camera settings. Working in the Manual mode. Exposure: how to get there.

May 15 – More camera settings. Focusing.
Planning the shot. Apps. Analog tools for remote locations. Choosing the right lens. The Moon. Perspective and focal length.

May 22 – Field trip in Central Park. Using a tripod, focusing, the histogram. (Weather permitting, date may vary depending on weather).

May 29 – Processing the image. Backing up files, editing – making selections, processing – working on file in Camera RAW + Photoshop. Single image adjustments. Saving the file.

June 5 – Field trip in Central Park More work on techniques. (Weather permitting, date may vary depending on weather).

June 12 – Putting it all together. Review of procedures. More image processing.

Location: Classes will be online using Zoom, except for the field trips. Sign-in with Google Classroom (GC) code given to you when you register. Class recordings and documents available during and for a time after the course.

Instructor: Stan Honda
Stan Honda is a New York-based photographer and worked as a photojournalist for over 38 years. His photographs for Agence France-Presse from the Sept. 11, 2001 attack on the World Trade Center were widely published and three images are on display in the 9/11 Memorial Museum. Currently working independently. A documentary book and film, Moving Walls: The Barracks of America’s Concentration Camps, was published with author Sharon Yamato. A continuing project involves night sky landscapes and he has worked as an artist-in-residence at eight national parks. Stan has had 12 images selected for NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day website. He is a Board member of the AAA and coordinates the Astrophotography Google Group and the Gateway Remote Telescope. Follow Stan on Instagram or Facebook or see his pictures at his website.

Members $75/ Nonmembers $90

Register here starting May 1.

* After registering, you’ll receive a confirmation containing our Google Classroom (GC) link. Click on this GC link immediately to be listed on the class roster. The Google Classroom is used for lecture slides, supplementary materials, announcements, discussions between the instructor and classmates, and links to the class recordings. It also gives the Zoom link to attend class each week. The class opens around 7:20PM and starts at 7:30 PM

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Do you have relatives and friends that ought to know of this class? Forward this or suggest they visit AAA.org/classes to consider it. They will thank you for doing so, as does the AAA for supporting our events.

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