Manual Stacking in Photoshop for Reduced Noise
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 in place of a telescope. A wide-angle lens can be a tremendous way to photograph a large area of the night sky at once, rather than zooming in on a deep sky object. [caption id="attachment_4045" align="aligncenter" width="713"] Thi…
Essential Image Processing Video Tutorial
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 a DSLR imager like me, many of the techniques you'll see demonstrated in this video will make their way into your capturing and processing workflow. Even if you focus more on deep-sky imaging with a large telescope, there is still much to t…
How To Take Pictures of Stars with a DLSR Camera
Anyone with access to a DSLR camera and a tripod (or a steady surface) can take stunning photos of the night sky with all of its glorious stars. You will even start to see some Nebulae, Galaxies, Globular Clusters, the Milky Way, Meteorites, Auroras and more. Taking pictures of a starry sky (nightscape photography) is a wonderful experience that may help you learn some of the constellations as well. A camera sensor, like the one in your DSLR, is capable of recording much more light than our eyes can see. This is why we are able to enjoy much more detail in a photograph than with our naked e…
Astrophotography Processing Graphic
Basic Processing of an Astro-Photo I created a graphic showing the basic steps needed to turn a raw stacked astrophoto into the final image. This was from data collected in July at the CCCA Observatory in Wellandport, Ontario. I wish I had framed the object better so I could have included M20, oh well, next year! Get Started: Beginner Astrophotography Guide
Photograph the Moon with a Point and Shoot Camera
[caption id="attachment_4546" align="aligncenter" width="688"] The full moon[/caption] 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 eyepiece projection method. The photo above was captured way back in 2010 through my first telescope, an Orion SkyQuest Dobsonian. Since then, I have photographed the moon countless times through a telescope. You can see my best moon photos in the gal…
