10 Things I Wish I'd Known About Astrophotography
When I bought my first telescope in 2020, I thought I was ready to capture the entire universe. Spoiler: I wasn’t. In this video, I look back on the ten biggest lessons I’ve learne...
The Space Koala Astrophotography by Luca Bartek
i guess most of us experienced the same things ;) and probably all of us learned, there is no "this is my last telescope" ;)
After years of wanting to get a scope I finally took the plunge this year. I used a smart scope at first to dip my toes in the water, loved it and then got inspired by one of your videos about building a modular rig. I have done this now and everything works like a charm. So, thankyou so much for your videos and the modular rig idea! I am already getting some great pictures and magic on every clear sky.
oh thanks for coming back to tell me this - awesome to hear you're enjoying your rig!
Absolutely great advice for anyone, wish you had been around 50 years ago when I went through the same painful learning process with much much less technology, I’m now 63 and am very content with my 102 refractor after 20 plus other scopes I just enjoy actually seeing what I’m seeing and understanding what’s really out there to be seen, keep it up😊
Your work is excellent, thank you very much, greetins Carlos from Argentina
I loved this video and found myself identifying with every one of your lessons, and especially about taking advice from multiple sources.. When I first got into astronomy I received terrible advice from someone I trusted as he had so much more astronomical experience than me. He advised me against astrophotography and to stick with visual astronomy. Honestly, that killed the hobby for me for a long time. I find that the production of an image, no matter how crappy at first, is such a rewarding experience.
Such a beautiful lady 😍
This video so resonates with me.
Very interesting video. I’m moving from 4 smart telescopes, the Celestron Origin, dwarf 3, plus the Mini also a SeeStar S50 to the Celestron 9.25 edge HD. It arrives tomorrow. I’m going to use it just as observation to start with. As I get more comfortable I’ll add a camera.
I had a Tasco refractor when I was a kid. Then a camera with a telephoto, a 90 mm SM, and an 8" Dob as an adult. I dropped out of the hobby for many years but now have dusted off the SM. At 73 yo I don't tolerate the cold nor a lot of standing nor bending over so I was elated to see the new smart scopes! My Seestar S50 will arrive Tuesday and an S30 pro is on order! I feel like a teenager again! THANK YOU FOR ALL THE GREAT VIDEOS! 🪐
Every Amateur astronomer is also an amateur meteorologist. they go hand in hand
My instruments are based on the seasons. Winter is Maksutov season as planetary Imaging is the fastest. No setting up the EQ. Just a tripod & a few minutes of data.
I love this. I just feel like planetary somehow ends being more effort due to the precision and luck needed
I got the bug as a teenager too. But that was the 80s, so any telescope at all was out of the budget. Didn't get to treat myself until 53 after rhe kids moved out.
When I was a teenager in the 1970's, my father bought me a telescope. I don't remember what it was, or focal lengths, or any of that stuff. I just knew that it was cool to look at things in the sky with it. During the summer months, I'd spend an hour or two every night in the backyard, with the lights of the house itself and the city around me, and had no idea how much I probably *wasn't* seeing because of all the light pollution. 😆 All I knew was that it was fun to see those things up there in the sky that I *could* look at. No smart phones at the time. The Internet existed then, but wasn't readily available to the masses. I had a round wheel thing you could get that you'd spin the inner part around to a given date, and it would show you where constellations and so on were, and then I had to figure out where exactly to look up in order to match that. lol It was its own kind of magic. 🙂 Like you described when you first looked through a telescope, things would move because there was no tracker for the kind of telescope my dad bought me (it was probably less than $100). I'm in my 60s now, and looking back on that time brings back some fond memories, and I've been looking into getting back into amateur astronomy, and think the astrophotography part of it is interesting (get to save pics of what I'm looking at 😋). I've been looking at telescopes, and the one I'm currently obsessing over is the Unistellar Odyssey Pro. What can I say - I want the eyepiece. Yes, I'm fully aware that it's a screen inside and not actually looking at the raw incoming imagery; it doesn't matter. From a psychological standpoint, I just want that ability - it just "feels better," if you can understand that. The fact that it's auto-focus and doesn't require any collimation is a big plus for me. I like the "grab it and go" nature that those feature provide. I'm still open to other ideas; it's just the one I'm currently looking at most closely. Hopefully, it'll take decent photos when I give that a try (assuming that's the one I finally end up buying). 🤞😁 I've been watching a lot of videos on the whole telescope/astronomy/astrophotography front, trying to better educate myself, including several of yours. Though I don't mind telling you - watching *this* video made me tired before I've even started. 🤣 I'm not sure why I posted all that; I guess I just wanted you to know that I've appreciated those videos of yours that I've watched (among other posters as well) so far, and have found them interesting, informative, and enjoyable to watch. If you have any suggestions you'd like to make, they'd be appreciated. But I guess this was mostly just to say "thanks" from someone who remembers the stars and planets of his childhood, and wants to see them again, better than ever before. 👍
Thanks so much for sharing your story and for watching 😊 I agree on the Odyssey. It’s weird as it’s a fake eyepiece but it still feels different
Awesome summary! My story of getting into the hobby is the same as yours, seeing Saturn through a small refractor was literally eye-opening. I was already 32 though. Got a cheap 6" Newtonian, and then went down the DIY route to build my own telescopes. The images are crappy, but taking an image of say M51 with your homemade equipment is endlessly rewarding (and you endlessly think about better star shapes)
Building your own scope is peak amateur astronomy. I hope I’ll manage to build my own one day
Im fortunate , I live in southern Alberta, a long ways from city lights with wide open skies on the flat prairie. Just started astrophotography and I love it, I never knew how much we can see with telescope eyes! Im also an artist so even not so great photos can be made interesting, at least to me ! really enjoy your videos and explanations, I have a lot to learn but thats part of the enjoyment for me now that Im retired.
Hello new to your channel and I am wondering as a novice. I would like a telescope where I am able to see the 🇺🇸 flag on the moon. What would you recommend? Thank you
Unfortunately there is no such telescope that can do that from earth. You’d need to be at the very least in orbit around the Moon
For me, I was not expecting to experience a deep sense of spirituality through astrophotography.
❤
Portability is also an important factor, for me, staying in a highly light-polluted city, shooting from a rooftop or backyard is not ideal.
And for those who still follow manually, like I do during 9 minutes photos: don't forget to apply the anti bug spray in the summer _before_ imaging. Oh, and say goodbye to your feet in winter😂 But it is all worth the effort, this hobby is purely magic!
to be fair I would love to try that once, as they say, do it for the plot. I'm sure I'll be humbled real quick