The Celestron StarSense Explorer Dob is a clever upgrade to a traditional 8″ Dobsonian telescope, thanks to its integrated smartphone app that helps you find objects in the night sky. It’s a visual telescope (not designed for astrophotography), but photos of bright objects like the Moon and planets are possible through the eyepiece. With 8…
The Celestron NexStar 8SE computerized telescope is one of the best-selling telescope packages of all time. It features a large aperture optical telescope and a computerized GoTo mount. The NexStar series of SCTs have been around for over a decade, and I was finally able to experience this beginner-friendly telescope for myself. I was impressed…
If you’re getting started in deep-sky astrophotography, I believe that a compact apochromatic (APO) refractor telescope is the best possible choice. A compact APO refractor is portable and lightweight, making it a smoother transition from the camera lenses you may be used to. In fact, in many ways, a high-quality apochromat is very much like…
This week, I returned to my roots and enjoyed some deep-sky astrophotography using a DSLR camera and small telescope. Don’t get me wrong, dedicated astronomy cameras and heavy-duty mounts are great, but my latest imaging session in the backyard was a breath of fresh air. In this post, I’ll share my early results with a…
It’s very exciting to know that the night sky is full of galaxies, nebulae, and star clusters to observe and photograph. The great Andromeda Galaxy, the glimmering Pleiades, and the vibrant red California Nebula are all jaw-dropping astrophotography targets. These are some of the easiest astrophotography targets in the night sky and be captured at almost…
Saturday Night Under the Stars Astrophotography in the City Last weekend I posted a new video to my YouTube channel titled DSLR Astrophotography – A Night in the Backyard with my Camera. It is now Early-April, and we are in what amateur astrophotographers call “Galaxy Season”, as we transition from the Winter Constellations like Orion…
Collimating a Newtonian telescope is something every backyard astronomer should experience. In this post, I align my 8″ Orion Astrograph Newtonian for a night of astrophotography in the backyard. My deep-sky target is M101 – The Pinwheel Galaxy – in the constellation Ura Major. With a proper alignment of the mirrors in this reflector, I…
Astrophotography Video Tutorial In my first ever astrophotography video tutorial, I take a crack at the Rosette Nebula using data collected in February 2014. I have plans of shooting a video about light frame acquisition in the future, but this one is about what happens after you have already captured your data. This astrophotography video tutorial may be…
Merry Christmas and a happy new year to all of my fellow astronomy nerds out there! 2015 was an amazing year for me and my family with the purchase of a new home and the addition of a new four-legged friend named Rudolph. Next year will be even better as I continue advancing my…
The Triangulum Galaxy The M33 Galaxy is the third-largest galaxy in the local-group of galaxies, behind the Milky Way and Andromeda. Its large size from our vantage point makes my wide-field astrophotography 80mm telescope a great choice for imaging this target. Despite it’s size, the Triangulum Galaxy appears much dimmer than M31 – The Andromeda…
Photographing the Sadr Star in Cygnus If you follow me on Twitter, you may have noticed that I was poking around in the middle of the constellation Cygnus last weekend, specifically centered on to the extremely bright Sadr star. I really wanted to post a really snazzy wide field photo of this region on this…
The Wizard Nebula through my 80mm Telescope Clear August Nights More consecutive clear summer nights have allowed me to put in some serious time on the Wizard Nebula! In fact, this is the most amount of exposure time I have put into any object! Over 7 Hours! Truth be told, I would have hopped over…