Originally published March 1, 2024. Last updated August 9, 2026. Photographing a solar eclipse can be a life-changing experience. You may only get a few chances in your lifetime to view or photograph this celestial event, so you want to make sure you are well-prepared and practiced ahead of time. If your first run with…
Last updated: August 21, 2026. If you find this helpful and buy through my links, I may receive a small commission. A total lunar eclipse is a celestial event that anyone can appreciate. Amateur photographers and astrophotographers alike are preparing to photograph a lunar eclipse using a wide range of camera equipment. The best part?…
When I photograph a tiny red object in the night sky, it is usually an emission nebula glowing in hydrogen-alpha light. When the James Webb Space Telescope finds a tiny red object, it can turn out to be something far stranger. Astronomers using JWST have studied an object called MoM-BH*-1 that existed just 660 million…
At first glance, this looks like an empty patch of sky. There is no bright red nebula jumping off the screen and no familiar galaxy waiting in the middle of the frame. But hidden among the stars is the Wolf’s Cave Nebula, an extremely faint complex of blue reflection nebulosity and dark interstellar dust in…
In this article, I’ll discuss why modern astrophotography cameras and processing have changed what the best astrophotography exposure time should be, and when a 5-minute exposure still makes sense. My Quick Answer No, you do not need five-minute exposures for most broadband projects with a modern CMOS camera. Use the shortest exposure that makes shot…
August is always one of my favorite months for astronomy. The Milky Way is still on display, the warm nights make it easy to stay outside for hours, and some of the best deep-sky objects of the year are riding high in the sky. In 2026, the month is especially exciting. We have a six-planet…
Disclosure: This article accompanies a video produced in paid collaboration with Telescope Live. If you subscribe through one of them, I may earn a commission at no additional cost to you. What is Telescope Live? Telescope Live is an online astrophotography platform where members use credits to download professional FITS datasets captured by robotic telescopes…
Last updated: June 29, 2026. If you find this helpful and buy through my links, I may receive a small commission. The Askar SQA130 is the largest telescope in Askar’s SQA (super quintuplet astrograph) series, and one I was especially excited to test. As a refractor fan, getting to test one with a healthy 130mm…
Recently, I captured the same deep-sky object using three very different camera systems. A full-frame mirrorless DSLR-style astrophotography setup. A dedicated astronomy camera rig with autoguiding. And a smart telescope that handled almost everything on its own. The target was the Elephant’s Trunk Nebula, a beautiful emission nebula in the constellation Cepheus. Each setup collected…
The ToupTek StellaVita is a control box that can run an entire astrophotography setup from your phone or tablet. It supports a wide range of cameras and accessories, so you’re not locked into a single ecosystem, and that alone makes it one of the more interesting alternatives to systems like the ASIAIR. After…
Dark sky camping has become a big part of how we travel. Whether we’re heading to a remote site or setting up at a star party, the goal is always the same: get away from artificial light and experience the night sky the way it’s meant to be seen. What we’ve learned, though, is that…
If you’ve ever stepped outside at night and looked up, it probably felt like you were seeing the night sky. A few bright stars, maybe a familiar constellation or two, and that’s it. For most people, that is the night sky they know, but it’s only a small fraction of what’s actually there. Over time,…