Astrophotography is a complex hobby that involves a lot of moving pieces. From setting up your equipment to processing your image it can be difficult to understand each part of the process, especially if you’re new to the hobby.
In my tutorials, I walk you through everything from setting up your equipment, showing specific image processing techniques, providing tips for improving your astrophotography or reviewing the latest equipment. I will offer advice based on my experiences, that might help you in your journey.
In this post, I’ll break down everything you need for deep-sky astrophotography with a telescope. I’ll cover each piece of gear I use, and explain how it can be used to capture beautiful deep-sky images of space from your backyard. Updated Version (2023): Deep-Sky Astrophotography How-To (Start to Finish) Deep-sky astrophotography is a rewarding and…
I recently returned from an unforgettable astrophotography trip where I photographed the Milky Way under some of the darkest skies in the Eastern United States. The Cherry Springs Star party is an annual astronomy event where night sky enthusiasts come together to appreciate the true beauty of an unspoiled night sky. In this post, I’ll…
It’s time for another Photoshop tutorial, along with some night sky DSLR photography tips. This time, the subject is our glorious Milky Way galaxy. There is nothing more humbling than spending a night under the band of stars seen from within our barred spiral galaxy. The true beauty of our universe is displayed in the arching…
Adobe Photoshop is the preferred image processing software of choice for many astrophotographers of varying levels of experience. The intuitive user interface and limitless image processing capabilities make it a real contender in the astrophotography world. The seamless integration with the .RAW image files produced by a Digital Camera make Photoshop an attractive choice for…
A Bahtinov mask is a clever tool for precisely focusing an astronomical telescope. The distinctive pattern of the Bahtinov design was created by Russian amateur astrophotographer Pavel Bahtinov in 2005. To use the mask, you simply need to cover the telescope’s objective and point the telescope at a bright star. The mask creates a pattern…
Even without a tracking mount, your astrophotography images can benefit from manual stacking in Photoshop. This method involves aligning exposures and combining them into a master composite. It can make a big impact on your astrophotos by reducing noise and improving the signal-to-noise ratio. The images used in the example were captured using a camera lens…
While digging though some old folders on Adobe Bridge, I stumbled across some unprocessed, 300 second light frames of the Flaming Star Nebula from November 2013! When you are desperate to get out and image a new target, this is like hitting gold. I was originally looking for my raw files of the Pacman Nebula, which…
This video may change the way your shoot and process astro-images forever. It covers the few simple steps needed to create an ultra high-resolution master frame with a high signal-to-noise ratio. This tutorial covers the capturing, processing and production of gorgeous wide-field astrophotography images using a camera lens or small telescope. If you are…
If you are wondering how to take pictures of stars and the alluring wonders of the night sky, look no further. In this article, I’ll share an absolute, bare-bones approach to capturing a spectacular photograph of the stars above the one below. This includes covering which camera to use, the exact camera settings I recommend,…
The following graphic provides an extremely basic break down of the steps that take place from a stacked image to a completed image. In reality, there are about 50 steps (or more) involved when processing a deep-sky astrophotography image such as this. You can click on the image for a larger view. Basic Processing of…
Photograph the Moon with a point-and-shoot camera You can take some incredible pictures of the moon through a telescope using an inexpensive point-and-shoot camera. Some of my very first astrophotography images were of the moon in its many phases using the afocal method (eyepiece projection does not use a camera lens) method. The photo above…