INTRODUCING ASTROPHOTOGRAPHER, MARY MCINTYRE
Observing from Oxfordshire, Mary’s passion for astronomy was re-ignited following an accident that left her unable to work for a number of years. Now a keen astrophotographer, Mary’s work and writing has been published in numerous astronomy magazines, books, local and national newspapers, and on various tv shows. In March 2018 Mary was elected as a Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society and is also a member of the British Astronomical Association, the Society for Popular Astronomy and the Society for the History of Astronomy. In 2021 Mary was awarded the Sir Patrick Moore prize by the British Astronomical Association for my contributions to astronomy outreach.
Could you tell us a little bit about yourself and what drew you to astrophotography?
I have always been interested in the night sky since an early age, but it was an accident that led me to astrophotography – I injured my back and became disabled. A really positive thing came from that because I then had time to study an astronomy GCSE going on to study astronomy and planetary science at the Open University. Not having to get up early for work meant that I could stay up late to observe; a luxury previously only afforded to me at weekends.
Around 10 years ago for my 40th birthday my mum bought me a camera and I started trying to learn astronomy photography, beginning with lunar photography for my astronomy GCSE coursework. That was the beginning of my photography journey.
I’m not an expert by any means and it’s a constant learning journey to improve and refine my skills. About six years ago, off the back of publishing my work online and being active within the astronomy community, I was asked to give some practical astrophotography talks. This has really taken off and I now have a really busy talks schedule talking about all aspects of astronomy. I am also a freelance astronomy writer for astronomy magazines and books, so what was a really passionate hobby is now my job which is just the dream. None of that would have happened if I hadn’t injured my back and not been able to work.
How do you decide your photographic subject?
It’s impossible for me to decide half the time! We have six telescopes at home and 8 cameras, so at any one time we might be imaging the Moon with one, doing widefield imaging with another and deep sky with another. I don’t have a specialist area – if it’s in the sky I love it – which can also be a problem as at the moment (Summer ’22) it’s been really clear and it’s hard to ignore a clear sky! In winter when we have fewer clear nights, I find it really hard to focus on just one object because I want to photograph everything and maximise those clear hours.
It’s impossible for me to decide half the time! We have six telescopes at home and 8 cameras, so at any one time we might be imaging the Moon with one, doing widefield imaging with another and deep sky with another. I don’t have a specialist area – if it’s in the sky I love it – which can also be a problem as at the moment (Summer ’22) it’s been really clear and it’s hard to ignore a clear sky! In winter when we have fewer clear nights, I find it really hard to focus on just one object because I want to photograph everything and maximise those clear hours.
What goes into taking a photograph such as the Bubble Nebula and a Waxing Crescent Moon?
Time and Patience.
My husband and I are constantly imaging, we have an observatory shed at home with one telescope permanently set up and computer controlled, so that’s often imaging all night long on a clear night.
We’ve also got a second fixed telescope pier which is often imaging something else, and then we can be running a widefield imaging camera that is photographing the Milky Way, meteor showers, or star trails. We often we can have 3 or 4 cameras running at once, grabbing every minute of clear sky that we have.
You can then spend the next 4 months catching up on image processing. For example with an image such as the Bubble Nebula, that takes a long time to tease out the detail and see how well the images came out. Sometimes it can take many hours or days to really pull out the details in that kind of image.
With a picture such as the Bubble Nebula you do have to spend a lot of time in Photoshop working on the levels and curves, as you want to bring out the fainter details without over exaggerating the background brightness or colours. It’s a constant balancing act.
Because all of my DSLR cameras are simple, entry level models, they can suffer with noise and hot/cold pixels, so I’ll also spend time ‘de-noising’ the image and removing the unwanted pixels. It can take a while, but it’s worth doing. Some people are very prescriptive about the process but I like to do it by eye as no set of data is ever exactly the same as sky conditions can vary a lot.
In contrast the Moon is quite simple to photograph and you can do some great stuff with it with really simple equipment – for example, the Waxing Crescent Moon image was actually a single shot taken with my DSLR camera and a 300mm Zoom lens.
Do you have any upcoming shoots planned for 2023 / anything you’d like to shoot next?
I’d like to get more into those amazing deep nebula pictures. They really require many hours of work over several clear nights, so you need patience and you need to forget about everything else and just focus on one object for a couple of months.
Do you have any tips for people new to astrophotography?
It’s perfectly possible to take really good photographs from your back garden using mobile phone cameras and budget DSLR cameras, so just try it. Don’t be put off by thinking you need a home observatory, a high end camera or to be an expert in the night sky.
Just throw yourself into it. The first few pictures that you take won’t be perfect, but you’ll get better – for example, my first images were shocking but I still keep them on my Flickr page because I think it’s important to share the good as well as the bad to track your progress. While it’s great to get inspired by other photographers, don’t compare your work to theirs. This is your photography journey, so long as you’re seeing improvements compared to your earlier work, you’re on the right path.
Mary’s pieces The Waxing Crescent Moon and The Bubble Nebula were selected for our BioCompostable Hand Wash and Lotion and Body Oils collections.
