If you’ve viewed deep-sky astrophotos (not landscape astrophotos), you may have noticed that extremely long exposures (not counting mosaics) are used. In extreme cases, exposures may run over 12 hours. Unless you have a space telescope, it should be obvious that multiple exposures have been used.
It’s springtime, which means that for most of us around the world, the core of the Milky Way galaxy, or the “Galactic Bulge,” will be prominently visible in the night sky roughly through the end of summer.
With long days and shorter nights, summer is a good time to consider getting into solar astrophotography. The Sun is also heading toward the active phase of its 11-year sunspot cycle and promises to make the Sun more interesting than the featureless cueball look of the sunspot cycle minimum. Solar astronomers use the count of visible sunspots as a measure of the solar activity, and sunspot cycle #25, as counted by astronomers, looks like it will be peaking sometime around 2024.
In 2021, one of the astronomical targets you may want to challenge your photo skills on is the lunar eclipse occurring on May 26 (the evening of May 25-26). While lunar eclipses are generally not hard to see, since half the world can see the moon at any instant, not everyone can see the full extent of the approximately three-hour event. For this one, Pacific Ocean hemisphere residents are favored, but the west coast of the U.S. gets to see totality followed by the still partially eclipsed moon set opposite the sunrise.
It hasn't been long since I reviewed that Dwarf II portable telescope/camera combo. I found it reasonably priced, ($595 with filters, tripod, extra battery and carry bag), easy to use, and something that was going to excite people of all ages who have longed to take good astrophotographs without spending a fortune or having to learn a lot of complicated science and processing skills.
If you have been using your digital camera for astrophotography, you’re probably aware that there are special astro variants of some of the more popular cameras. But how exactly are these special variants different, and can you modify yours?
With so many new cameras for every type of photographer and videographer, a few bodies from that last few years have dropped off the radar almost completed; this is one of them.
One photographer has had his attempts at capturing the Comet NEOWISE sabotaged, after his view was interrupted by SpaceX’s Starlink satellites, whose lights cut into his shots.
Comet Neowise is probably going to be the most positive event of 2020, so here is how I immortalized this beautiful phenomenon.
As photographers, we generally think of long exposures as being on the order of a few minutes, maybe a few hours if you get deep into astrophotography. This exposure took far longer than that, however; in fact, it took over a week to gather enough light for the final image.
The recent large scale deployment of the first piece of the SpaceX satellite constellation triggered a controversy among astronomers and astro-photographers. With the planned launch of 12,000 satellites by the mid-2020s, some people fear the worst. What is really going on?
The northern lights are one of the great unicorns of the photography world. Researching how to find them can sound as complicated as entropy. Luckily, this video breaks down everything you need to know about analyzing the science behind hunting the auroras.
A few months ago, I shared how to take stunning night photos. There, I touched on the technical aspects of taking and editing such images. In today's article, I expand on the topic, focusing on creating perfectly noise-free night images.
I strive to capture moments in time with my photography, and one thing I like is once in a lifetime or very rare moments. The Neowise comet (aka C/2020 F3 NEOWISE) is one of those moments that won't happen again for about another 6,800 years.
A few weeks ago, I read some news about the rare NEOWISE Comet passing by Earth and being large and clear enough to see with your naked eye. I got up, went outside, and looked up to a bunch of cloud cover. Luckily for me and all of you, we can always hit up Instagram and Facebook for great photos other photographers captured.
About a month has passed since Skywatcher officially announced the Star Adventurer GTi, the smallest and lightest purpose-built GoTo astrophotography mount. But is it actually any good?
One cold night a few weeks ago, photographer Matthew Vandeputte set a time-lapse running and went to bed for the night. In the morning, he discovered that his sequence had captured an incredible meteor crashing into the Earth’s atmosphere, creating a stunning trail and leaving a spectacular puff of smoke. If only we could all shoot images like this while unconscious.
Last year, I took a look at Astro Panel, a Photoshop plugin designed to enhance Milky Way and other astronomical images. At the time, I was happy with what it did, but the author had a security scheme that forced you to log into the app every couple of weeks, which I thought was burdensome and downright silly.
These two wide angle third-party prime lenses are both ultra-fast, with a maximum aperture of f/1.4. But which of the two should you go for?
If you’ve ever thought about getting into astrophotography, you may have been dissuaded by the task of correctly processing your own images. There are countless guides online using a variety of programs, but they are either expensive and difficult to use, or are only available for a single operating system.
What’s the longest exposure you’ve ever taken? Thirty seconds? A few minutes? Check out this camera that shoots a ten million-second exposure of the Sun — depending on how long you leave it tied to your roof.
Astrophotography is a very challenging genre, requiring specialized equipment, technical knowledge, top-notch technique, and a lot of patience, but it can be tremendously rewarding when it all comes together and you get a stunning image of something that is an unfathomably large distance from our home. If you are new to deep-sky astrophotography, this great video tutorial will show you the basics of getting started with a camera and a telescope.
Astrophotography and nighttime photography generally come with their own respective challenges. The biggest problem tends to be increased noise especially in the shadow areas of an image. But what if there was some incredibly smart software that could magically get rid of the noise and improve your images, would you use it?
Astrophotography is a fascinating niche within photography that combines technical skill with an appreciation for the cosmos. It requires specialized equipment to capture distant celestial objects like star clusters and nebulae, making the choice of gear crucial for enthusiasts and professionals alike, and that choice can often be expensive. This fantastic video takes a look at what you can achieve for under $500.
If you are at all interested in astrophotography, you may have wondered if your current lenses are up to the task of capturing sharp, distortion-free images of the stars. Something most modern digital lenses weren’t intended for.
As 2019 came to a close and most people were heading home for the holidays the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) team at NASA were hard at work on the latest and greatest 1.8 billion pixel, 360 degree panorama of the Martian surface.
If you look into the night sky long enough, you will see the stars move. Because it is dark at night, you will need a longer shutter speed to capture the beauty of the stars and constellations. But don’t expose too long, or they will turn into trails.
The new Canon mirrorless which has caused such a stir for photographers in all genres. One of which, is astrophotography, so how does it perform?
One of the Holy Grail quests for astrophotographers is the search for dark skies. Few of us are fortunate enough to live in ideal dark skies, but most of us are mobile enough to get to somewhere better than the center of an urban area.
There is not a more confounding and mysterious element of digital photography than ISO. And just when we've all thought we've figured it out and it starts to make sense, another wrinkle appears and threatens our conceptions all over again.
Astrophotography can be one of the neatest and most interesting genres, but it is also one of the most challenging, requiring a lot of very specific knowledge and techniques, as well as some very specialized gear. If you would like to get started with astrophotography, check out this fantastic video tutorial that will show you the ins and outs of the genre.
Astrophotography is a genre that requires some of the most extreme and specialized gear. At the same time, though, photographic technology has made some remarkable leaps in the last few years, with some of that technology making its way into smartphones. Can you photograph the night sky with just a phone? This great video shows what you can accomplish.
For Northern Hemisphere astrophotographers wanting to try getting into the deep sky (outside our solar system) targets, here are three suggestions to start the Winter season, with the bonus that a stock (unmodified) DSLR or mirrorless camera can be used.
If you’ve any interest in astrophotography, you might wonder what’s involved in capturing images of deep space from your own back yard. While a proper rig will set you back in excess of $6,000, this video finds out what you can achieve for just $600.
Astrophotography can be an incredibly rewarding and awe-inspiring photography genre to get into, but it can also requires loads of specialized equipment that is decidedly not cheap. This awesome video review takes a look at a budget option to see if it can still get great results that make it worth the cost.
Whether you are looking to get into astrophotography or take your skills to the next level, 2021 has lots of great astronomical events happening all over the world. Planning in advance and being in the right place at the right time is the first step to getting amazing shots.
The Perseid Meteor Shower peak has come and gone for 2021. This year the Moon’s interference was minimal, setting early in the evening around the predicted peak days, but luck always plays a major role in anyone’s success.
Jupiter is one of the most stunning objects in the night sky, and while it is relatively close to us are far as objects in space go, it is still a mind-bogglingly far distance from our home planet, making it a real challenge to photograph. This neat video goes behind the scenes to show the process an astrophotographer went through to get a photo of the biggest planet.
Learn how to photograph the Milky Way galaxy by choosing the correct equipment, using the right camera settings, and planning ahead with precision to avoid disappointment. You can also use these tips to photograph other astrophotography shots such as meteor showers.
I've been doing serious astrophotography for around 20 years. I started in Seattle (large mistake), but now, I'm in Arizona, where we get a lot of "severe clear" nights.
There are many creative ways to explore within each genre of photography. One that is both challenging and fun and can deliver mysterious and incredible results is light painting.
Some astronomers and observatories are complaining that satellites sent into low earth orbit by private companies to provide global internet and other services will impact night sky observation and ruin astrophotography.
It has been gone since fall, but the galactic core of the Milky Way is back and rising up in the early morning. Spring is a great time to learn how to photograph the Milky Way in the Northern hemisphere, so you can have your process perfected and be ready when the galactic core reaches peak altitude in July and August.
For astrophotographers who use Photoshop, here's some interesting and some good news. A just-released plug-in called APF-R (Absolute Point of Focus) can do wonders for your images. Astrophotographer Christoph Kaltseis has developed APF-R in order to achieve high-resolution, ultra-sharp images that still look natural. As astro-imagers know, trying to sharpen point sources like stars can result in ugly halos and other unwanted artifacts.
Selecting the right solar filter for photographing the sun, especially during an eclipse, is a critical decision for photographers. Understanding the differences between visible light or broadband filters and narrowband filters can greatly impact the quality and safety of solar photography. This helpful video tutorial will show you what you need to know.
A large part of photographing specific events is planning. Obviously, being in the right place at the right time is the key to successfully photographing an event that occurs only at particular places and times, but you can only plan when you know something is going to happen.
Astrophotography can be a very tricky and specialized genre, but it is also highly rewarding when you get it right. This awesome video will walk you through the entire process from start to finish to get your first image.
It doesn't take long to burn out on a single photographic genre, especially for a creative person not being challenged enough. If you’re in danger of burnout and could use a unique challenge to reignite your passion for photography, consider astrophotography.
