Catching The Ancient Lights from South Carolina: Blake Behrends
IC 348 by Blake Behrends
Residing in a small, historic southern town near Charleston, South Carolina, I work in the field of business continuity and disaster preparedness. I started pursuing astrophotography mid-2022 shortly after spring and captured my first image of the Andromeda Galaxy in August of the same year. My interest in astronomy began in the early 1990s when comet Hale Bopp was making its pass through our solar system. Many years later, my interest was sparked by an astrophysics professor I had in college, which led me into the world of astrophotography. Once I became more comfortable with my equipment, I created an Instagram account to connect with others in the astrophotography community and industry.
The Art and Science of Capturing the Cosmos
The challenges I initially encountered in the world of astrophotography were significant. While I had a solid foundation in astronomy, I had no prior experience with photography. On top of that, the processing software proved to be particularly difficult to master. Fortunately, my good friend Mario Paliferro provided invaluable support, teaching me how to set up my equipment, program it, and process the data. Astrophotography comes with a steep learning curve and can be especially complex for those without prior experience in either astronomy or photography.
Most of my current equipment is the same as what I started with when I began astrophotography. The only significant change I made was upgrading my primary camera from a one-shot color camera to a monochromatic camera, along with the necessary filters that monochromatic cameras require. I made this switch within six months of starting astrophotography. Although the monochromatic process takes more time and requires additional data, the results are far superior. The data captured with a monochromatic camera allows for significantly more detailed and refined processing, whereas a one-shot color camera imposes more significant limitations on processing images.
I’ve encountered what feels like an endless list of “rules” about how to collect data with fast systems properly. However, for those wondering how I achieve the images I do, particularly from a moderately light-polluted location, the solution is simple: gather a large amount of data with a fast system. While I’ve often heard debates about diminishing returns, my experience testing shorter and longer integration times on various projects has made it clear that more extended integration is the key to success. The same principle applies to the length of individual exposures. I’ve found that my sweet spot for most targets falls between 2 to 5 minutes per exposure. This is well beyond the typical rule of thumb for fast systems, where decent photos can often be achieved with 1–2-minute exposures.
My creative approach to data collection is twofold: I capture rarely photographed structures or use uncommon framing for common structures. Where I think my work really stands out is in my processing, which has dramatically evolved since I began 2.5 years ago. By utilizing multiple software programs and Photoshop in most of my non-linear processing, I've corrected many things within my photos and blended narrowband channels in ways I couldn’t do in Pixinsight. My inspirations come from various sources, but lately, they’ve been driven by other astrophotographers and spontaneous ideas that come to mind. For example, experimenting with near-infrared and H-beta filters to capture spectra that are rarely, if ever, seen in other astrophotos. This approach has allowed me to create unique images of commonly photographed targets and inspired others to explore near-infrared imaging and produce truly distinctive work.
IC 5070 by Blake Behrends
Overcoming Challenges and Inspiring the Future
I have faced current challenges, including poor weather conditions, wildfire smoke, and, of course, light pollution. The past two summers have been terrible in terms of smoke and poor weather, which has caused a significant delay in completing a four-panel mosaic of the Rho Ophiuchi Cloud Complex. I hope to complete it in the summer of 2025. Fingers crossed!
The most rewarding part of astrophotography is seeing one of my innovative ideas succeed, whether it’s an experiment in processing or the use of unconventional filters. Even more fulfilling is when other astrophotographers incorporate those ideas into their work. This validates the approach and allows me to evaluate the overall effectiveness of my techniques across different systems and processing methods.
Advice & Looking ahead
My advice may be a bit unconventional for anyone interested in getting into astrophotography: invest in the best equipment you can afford. Beginner systems are often outgrown quickly, and if you’re truly committed, you’ll be ready to tackle the more complex aspects of your system, the processing, or both. The key takeaway is this: it’s better to face the challenge of learning a sophisticated system than to start with a beginner setup and outgrow it within months. I’ve seen many beginners become discouraged and give up because, no matter how much they learn, their entry-level systems simply can’t produce the data quality needed to achieve their goals.
So, what’s next for me? Currently, I’m part of a team of astronomers working with a dual-array system to survey the northern hemisphere. While we’re still in the early stages of the project, it’s already proving successful. We’re also planning to expand to other observatories and, eventually, the southern hemisphere. Ultimately, we hope our work will inspire young people in the community to follow in our footsteps and pursue their dreams.
SH2-216 by Blake Behrends
