The Little Dipper is a pattern of stars found in the Ursa Minor constellation (i.e. Little Bear). Similar to the Big Dipper, the handle forms the tail of the little bear, while the bowl forms the bear’s flake/hindquarters. The Little Dipper is an asterism and is not considered a formal constellation. The Little Dipper contains…
In this post, I will share the techniques and equipment I used to take a picture of the stunning Sunflower Galaxy. With the world largely shut down for me, deep-space astrophotography in the backyard has been a welcome escape. Cataloged as Messier 63, this stunning galaxy is about 25 million light-years away from Earth in…
An open star cluster is a young bundle of stars, irregularly shaped and found in the galactic plane. They contain hundreds of stars unstably bound together, and they’re visible from earth. The Pleiades (M45) is an example of an Open Cluster. Open star clusters are small collections of young stars, irregular in shape and numerous…
The M106 Galaxy (also known as NGC 4258) is an intermediate spiral galaxy located in the northern constellation Canes Venatici. This galaxy lies approximately 23 million light-years away from Earth. In the amateur astrophotography image below, you can see the gas and dust of the spiral arms spreading outward from the core of the galaxy….
Nightscape photography involves capturing a landscape-style image at night. It can include the beautiful Milky Way, a starry sky, or your favorite constellation. This is a type of astrophotography where long exposure images are taken to reveal the beautiful light of a seemingly ‘dark’ sky. Star photography requires quality optics, and some camera lenses are better…
The Sigma 24mm F/1.4 lens is an interesting choice for astrophotography, particularly wide-angle Milky Way photography. With an f-ratio of F/1.4, this Sigma art series lens can pull in a lot of light under a dark night sky. While a few lenses in their art-series line-up are well-suited for low-light photography, I consider the 24mm…
The Radian Raptor 61 is a triplet apochromatic refractor telescope for astrophotography. It features a compact design with features custom-suited for wide-field, deep-sky astrophotography. Since the Raptor arrived in September, I have taken some of my best astrophotography images to date with it. In this review, I’ll share all of the image examples I have…
The Lobster Claw Nebula (Sharpless 157) is a bright emission nebula. It lies near the edge of the northern constellation Cassiopeia, bordering on Cepheus. As you’ll soon see in my long-exposure image, this bright HII region is surrounded by many more interesting deep-sky objects. It sits very close in the sky to another popular emission…
Last week, I photographed the Wizard Nebula with my camera and telescope in the backyard. The final image includes 24 individual exposures of 4-minutes each, for a grand total of 1.5 hours. Despite a bright moon interfering, it is by far my best image of the Wizard Nebula to date. In this post, I’ll explain…
The Optolong L-eXtreme filter is now being used in backyards across the globe, which is great news for those who take astrophotography images in heavy light pollution. This dual-narrowband filter features even narrower bandpasses than last year’s L-eNhance, making it perfect for nebula photography from the city. The Optolong L-eXtreme filter isolates the H-alpha (Ha),…
Last updated: November 7, 2025. There are four distinct types of galaxies in the universe: elliptical, spiral, barred spiral, and irregular. Although these are the four main types, there are various types of galaxies, and they are classified by shape. A galaxy is a cluster of stars, gas, and dust that is kept together by…
Last updated: October 7, 2025. The following astrophotography tips apply whether you shoot deep-sky objects in space with a DSLR camera and telescope or with a simple camera lens on a tripod. If you are getting your feet wet and looking to capture a photo of the night sky that includes colorful, sharp stars and…