Gearing Up for Our Next Trip

In addition to planning and booking activities for our trip this upcoming April, I'm also "gearing" up to hit the sand after dark and point my camera to the sky once again.

I've been doing some reading and browsing the Net for astrophotography and have been updating my camera gear to do even better this year. I already know that during the time we're in Maui (4/13 - 4/25), we're not going to have a new moon like we had last year, but that's okay (we checked the calendar, we didn't use that scary looking formula on Wikipedia). I thought I'd post my current list of camera equipment that I bring along for these dates with the stars, as well as my latest shopping list for our '08 Trip.

Current Camera Gear
DSLR Camera: Canon EOS 20D 8.2MP Digital SLR Camera with EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 Lens
Zoom Lens: Canon EF 70-300mm f/4-5.6 IS USM Lens for Canon EOS SLR Cameras (not necessarily using it for astrophotography)
Travel Tripod: Sunpak Compact Camera Tripod (might still upgrade here)

Maui '08 Trip Shopping List
Astrophotography Book: Digital SLR Astrophotography (Practical Amateur Astronomy)
View Finder: Canon Angle Finder C for Canon EOS SLR Cameras
Remote Switch: Canon RS-80N3 Remote Switch for EOS-1V/1VHS, EOS-3, ...
Fixed Lens: Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 II Camera Lens

I had originally thought of checking out telescopes as well, but I'm already looking at a pretty decent amount of equipment to be carrying around. I think what I have planned already is a good start and with a little bit more knowledge and practice than I had last year, I'm shooting for the stars (pardon the pun).

If you have any comments or experiences with your own star photos, or wanted to share info on your tools for the job, go ahead and post your comments here, or catch me on Flickr as webnelly. You can also check out the Flickr group I started to help capture the wonder of stargazing on the islands, at Stars Over Hawaii.

Mahalo.