Astrophotography Overview

Astrophotography

Astrophotography is an exciting hobby that combines techniques with creativity and nature. No wonder, then, that more and more amateur astronomers and photographers are focusing on this topic to capture unique images of the night sky.

In astrophotography, there are different categories you can focus on. I have specialized in panoramic astrophotography because, in this area, extraordinary results are the easiest to realize.

Deep Sky Photography: The images were taken with a camera using a telescope. In the first step, this requires an excellent telescope, a good camera and the necessary adapters to connect them together. In the second step, demanding astronomy skills are required to capture the appropriate astronomical objects. The result is greatly magnified images of distant galaxies and planets that few people ever see with their own eyes.

Solar System Photography: Not only outside, but also in the middle of our solar system spectacular motives can be found, which you can photograph. Some planets and moons are relatively easy to put in front of the lens, as long as you have the right equipment.

Panoramic Astrophotography: A wide-angle lens is attached to the camera to capture a landscape including the night sky. The interplay of terrestrial landscape and star constellations produces fascinating results, for which photography even a telescope is not required.

Astrovideography: The wide-angle camera shoots a subject in time-lapse mode. This requires many individual recordings, which are cut together to a video in the post-processing. The basic technique is wide-angle astrophotography.

Important Basic Settings

Aperture

The optimal aperture is about:

f1.4 – f2.8

I’m convinced that simply try it out.

Note:

For astrophotography you need a light-strong lens. As a beginner in astrophotography, these lenses are not particularly inexpensive.

ISO

The ISO value describes the light sensitivity of the image sensor. Best is a value of :

ISO 400 – 3200

Due to the dark environment and the comparatively “short” exposure when photographing from the night sky to avoid blurred stars, a high ISO value is absolutely necessary.

Tip:

Better a noisy picture than no picture at all!

Shutter Speed

Because you want to capture a maximum amount of light just before the Earth’s rotation creates Star Trails in your image, there is a narrow exposure time window. Fortunately, you can derive the exact duration from physics.

In short, the longer the focal length of your camera/lens, the quicker the exposure time must be.

A 24mm lens on a camera with a format factor of 1 (full-frame) gives you a maximum exposure time of 25 seconds before the stars in your shot are displayed as lines instead of dots.

Further Adjustments

I shoot astrophotography in manual mode because here, all degrees of freedom are given to you. So you can influence all variables according to your wishes and correct them quickly.

I take the pictures in RAW format to get the best picture quality and to be able to adjust my white balance in post-processing.

A particular difficulty at night is focusing. Especially in almost total darkness, it’s impossible to find the right focus point, so it’s essential to set the focus manually. Some colleagues recommend turning the focus ring of the lens to the infinity setting until the end. My experience is that the actual infinity focus is often a few millimeters before this setting.

Due to the precise exposure, it is essential to have a stable stand, because even minimal shaking can have maximum influence on the final result. Therefore a safe and stable tripod is not to be renounced. Moreover, the camera does not know that it is firmly fixed, and the image stabilization could still try to compensate for something that does not exist. Therefore the image stabilization should also be switched off.

After all, settings have been made, it is not easy to give tips on image composition, because everyone has their own ideas about what should be in the image. In general, I would say: Less is more. Try to only include elements in the picture that should be part of it and perhaps have a relationship with your central motif.

Useful Knowledge

Star Constellation

You should always know where the constellation of your choice is located and how it fits into the overall composition. Depending on the time of day, night, and season, the orientation of the earth to the stars changes. If you want to photograph a particular constellation, you need to know where it is located. If you’re going to capture the Milky Way, you should know its location. Luckily, you don’t have to be able to interpret star charts for that anymore. There are apps these days that show you exactly where, when, and which constellation is were positioned.

Moon Phases (Weather & Environment)

To photograph as many stars as possible, you ideally need a clear and unclouded sky.

It is also important that the moon is not full, because it outshines many stars. By the way, in winter, it is best to notice how bright the full moon actually is. So ideally, you have a new moon, or the moon is below the horizon.

Light Pollution

Also, try to find a dark spot, don’t take pictures in the middle of town – go out to the country or into the woods. Here you have less light pollution. Brandenburg and Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania in Germany, you have the best conditions to avoid light pollution in Germany. For all others, there is an interactive & current map with very dark locations: lightpollutionmap.info

StarTrails

There are two ways to create Star Trails:

Capture the rotation of the earth during your exposure in the image. Exposure times between 30 minutes and 3 hours are recommended.
Like the Timelapse process, you take several images at a specific interval and then stitch them together during post-editing. This allows you to create a timelapse and generate a Star Trail photo at the same time.

Design Samples

Skills needed

Mastering the basic understanding of your own camera
To be able to operate your camera safely even in the dark
Manual focusing your camera
Be well rested & have fun by your photography

Planning 44%

Shooting Time 26%

Selection & Editing 57%

Publication & Recognition 33%

Tripod

Astrophotography requires low light and short exposure times. For this reason, a tripod is indispensable.

Since most of the suitable photo positions are in the open, there is no possibility to place the camera anywhere. For this reason, you should use a stable tripod to avoid camera shake.

Remote Trigger

When you take pictures from a tripod, you do it, so the picture doesn’t jitter. However, the moment you press the shutter button on the camera, you may be shaking the image.

To avoid this error, I use a remote shutter release. To my knowledge, there are wireless, infrared, and cable remote triggers on the market. All three fulfill this function.

Storage & Battery

You should have your memory cards properly formatted and choose the right size for your purpose.

Long-time exposures consume a lot of battery power because the mirror has to be kept permanently up, for example with SLR cameras. So you should not only have the battery fully charged but also a spare battery with you. Batteries have lower performance at low temperatures, which you should keep in mind.

Flashlight & Gloves

As you always move in the dark when taking astrophotographs, you need to be familiar with the functions and settings of your camera. It’s also very helpful to carry a flashlight.

Especially in the later seasons, it gets faster colder in the evenings and at night, so think of gloves. The best thing to do is to try out whether you can still operate your camera well with them.