To wrap up the late summer season, I photographed the North America Nebula in Cygnus using my Explore Scientific ED80 refractor telescope. The image includes nearly 3 hours of total exposure time using a stock DSLR camera (Canon EOS Rebel XSi). The North America Nebula is a fantastic beginner astrophotography target because it is large,…
I have been working on this video for the past 6 months. Not because I have been tweaking it to perfection, but because keep getting newer, better images to add to it! It’s basically a slideshow with music, but I think it does a good job a re-creating the feeling I get when I shoot…
M45 – The Pleiades Autumn Stars – Pleiades Rising Last Saturday I spent a very cold, but very dark and clear night at the RASC Observatory in Wellandport, Ontario. There were 4 of us that stayed the night, and I think every one of us complained about being underdressed! I began my night by shooting…
Back in 2012 when I wrote this post, I had no idea of the dedication needed for astrophotography. Spending a month taking pictures of and processing a single target is nothing. In fact, to spend less time than that on a particular subject now, would seem odd. I guess you could say that this experience…
The Iris Nebula is a beautiful, blue reflection nebula in the constellation Cepheus. Cataloged as NGC 7023, this deep-sky object is a superb choice for your camera and telescope. If you haven’t photographed a reflection nebula before, you are in for a real treat. The dust and reflected light associated with the Iris Nebula are…
This post showcases one of my first images of the Andromeda Galaxy. The photo was captured using a small refractor telescope on a tracking equatorial mount. I have since photographed Messier 31 several times through a variety of different telescopes. Have a look at my experiences photographing Andromeda using a William Optics Z61 refractor on…
The following image is of the Lagoon Nebula in the constellation Sagittarius. Ever since I got into Astrophotography, I’ve wanted to image this nebula because it is so big and colorful. Emission nebulae are some of the most beautiful and colorful objects in the night sky. I photographed this deep-sky target using my 80mm refractor…
On June 5th, 2012, I witnessed the Planet Venus transit the Sun from my backyard. I used an Orion 4.5″ Skyquest Dobsonian telescope with a homemade solar filter to observe the event. My parents joined me to watch with their solar glasses on. I remember the feeling of watching the Sun up close through the…
The Pillars of CreationThanks to some advice from the guys over at Astrogab, I have purchased a very powerful Action Set for Adobe Photoshop. I highly recommend this to any astrophotographer because it can save you serious time when processing an image. In light of these new tools, I have been going through and re-processing a…
M20 – The Trifid NebulaIt all started on Friday, April 27th when I was lucky enough to spend another night at the RASC Niagara Observatory in Wellandport, Ontario. The clouds hung around until about 1:30 am, just as the moon was setting. Now that the summer constellations are beginning to appear again, I wanted to…
This post provides a great example of what to expect when shooting the Eagle Nebula with a stock DSLR camera. When people ask me whether it’s necessary to modify their DSLR to capture deep sky astrophotography images, I often think back to my early experiences with M16. M16 – The Eagle Nebula I have since…
This post was originally published in March 2012, when I was still learning how to use my astrophotography equipment. I was starting to see some promising results using the Explore Scientific ED80 refractor and my Celestron CG-5 GoTo mount. More importantly, the lessons I learned from Jerry Lodriguss were beginning to sink in and my…