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,…
To view my latest image of the Pelican Nebula, have a look at the version captured using a dedicated astronomy camera (ZWO ASI294MC Pro). Narrowband filters can make capturing faint emission nebulae like the Pelican Nebula easier from the city, as it separates the light wavelengths associated with the target from a washed out sky….
I have been spending a lot of time photographing the night sky towards the core of the Milky Way. My 80mm refractor has a focal length of 480mm, which magnifies many deep-sky objects in the area of Sagittarius. The Lagoon Nebula and the Trifid Nebula lie very close together in the night sky, as far…
Problems with Celestron CG-5 Mount Up until this point, my Celestron CG-5 mount has been very good to me. Despite what I have heard, it has been a quality mount, capable of 5+ minute exposures, no problem (with autoguiding). Recently though, the power has been cutting in and out. Last Friday night, under clear, dark,…
The following photo of the California Nebula was captured using my DSLR camera before it was modified for astrophotography. NGC 1499 in Perseus is perhaps the best example of the difference removing the stock IR cut filter from your DSLR camera can make. For an emission nebula like this, an image with a stock camera…
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…
In this article, I’ll describe how I photographed the Boogieman Nebula (LDN 1622) in the constellation Orion using my camera and telescope. This was the first time I had ever captured this deep-sky object before, and one of only a handful of dark nebulae I have ever photographed. LDN 1622 is a dark molecular cloud…
Late last month, William sent me a William Optics RedCat 71 for review purposes. I will continue to share my results using this apochromatic refractor telescope, and will likely purchase it after the testing period if I have the option. At the time of writing, I do not know when the RedCat 71 will be…
The AstroBackyard Backyard of the Week highlights astrophotography setups from around the world. A “backyard” can be a balcony, driveway, garden, or wherever else you set up astrophotography equipment at home. By taking a behind-the-scenes look at the equipment amateur astrophotographers use to take deep-sky images, you can get a better understanding of the process….
The AstroBackyard Backyard of the Week highlights astrophotography setups from around the world. A “backyard” can be a balcony, driveway, garden, or wherever else you set up astrophotography equipment at home. By taking a behind-the-scenes look at the equipment amateur astrophotographers use to take deep-sky images, you can get a better understanding of the process….
The AstroBackyard Backyard of the Week highlights astrophotography setups from around the world. A “backyard” can be a balcony, driveway, garden, or wherever else you set up astrophotography equipment at home. By taking a behind-the-scenes look at the equipment amateur astrophotographers use to take deep-sky images, you can get a better understanding of the process….
In this article, I’ll explain why I built a backyard observatory, and how the entire project took shape this spring. Officially named “Black Dog Observatory” this structure will become the epicenter of my astrophotography operations in the backyard. Below, is a photo of me standing in my new SkySked POD XL5 observatory. I expect many…