While most of the world is stuck at home, the good people at Irix prepared this very comprehensive guide to shooting Astrophotography.
Most of the world is being asked to stay home due to the Coronavirus pandemic and while many people are taking time to relax and rest, many photographers are looking for interesting things to shoot within the bounds of where they are.
In perfect timing for those who live far away from significant light pollution, Irix published this Guide to Astrophotography that talks about all the challenges of shooting the night sky and how to overcome them. He started things off with a bit of emphasis on why astrophotography requires a specific set of gear with special attention to a sturdy tripod. Shooting the night sky entails taking rather long exposures and since the stars are translated into very fine details in the output, any minor shake of your setup can botch the entire shot.
With very detailed sample images, photographer Adam Śmiałek showed different ways of shooting the night sky and the different means of properly exposing the heavenly bodies. Śmiałek talks about the various objects you can see in the night sky such as the stars, meteors, satellites, and airplanes along with how they can affect your shots. Interestingly, all the sample photos were taken by Śmiałek all in one night with the Irix 11mm f/4 and the Irix 15mm f/2.4 lenses.
Astrophotography has become inherently more difficult now due to the sheer amount of human made satellites orbiting our earth. i.e. Space X starlink proposes a total of 1548 satellites alone if I'm correct. Like trying to shoot pictures during rush hour across a freeway. I guess it can still be done with much patients and perseverance.
No mention focusing aids like the Bahtinov mask. Many lenses aren't focused at infinity when they are set to infinity.
Comprehensive is a stretch. No mention of calculating proper exposure times, nor anything about white balance.