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Astronomy

Astrophotography

You are never too old to learn, and one of the thing that has opened my eyes  has been discovering the quality of astronomical images that can be produced by amateurs with very modest equipment. By using digital cameras and image processing software it's a realistic ambition to produce images that compare favourably with those produced by the world's biggest telescopes fifty years ago - right in your back yard!

This website does not showcase the best astronomical pictures on the internet! It's a selection of pictures I have taken myself with basic equipment and free software. Producing images like these below, or even better ones, is within your reach!

Most importantly, you don't have to spend a fortune. My first serious scope, mount and tripod cost £180 on Ebay. I spent £40 on a more solid tripod, and about £200 on various bits and pieces including books and an ancient Canon EOS DSLR and a seconhand Microsoft HD Webcam. The results shown before are  some of my best so far, and will be updated from time to time.

Perhaps the easiest target in the sky is the moon. You can get good pictures with any long or zoom lens, this is a 'stack' of six pictures taken with an ordinary bridge camera:

A Gibbous Moon photographed over thr Isle of Skye in near-poerfect seeing conditions

A gibbous moon photographed on the isle of Skye.

Follow the links below for introductions to some of the other things you can image in the night sky:

The Moon

The Sun

The Planets

Messier Objects

Star Clusters

Nebulae

Galaxies

Constellations

Meteors

Have a go!

I hope I have convinced you to have a go at photographing the night sky - these photos may not hold a candle to some of the work of professionals like Damian Peach or even dedicated amateurs, but I hope you are surprised what can be done with kit that has cost me well under £500.

There are lots of places to find out more on line, but perhaps the easiest place to start is the StargazersLounge webiste.

As well as the subjects covered above there are all sorts of other things to look out for - comets, asteroids, meteors, aurorae, noctilucent clouds and various metereological effects such as sundogs and lunar halos. And sometimes there are just picturesque events such as this near conjunction of the Moon and Venus.

Conjunction of Moon and Venus seen ona slightly misty night, with teh moon partly behind trees

A Conjunction of Moon and Venus

 

M40 is notorious as the most underwhelming of all the Messier objects, being no more than a pair of randomly aligned stars of similar magnitude that Messier found near the location where Helvelius had mistakenly reported a nebula.

M40

M40, one for completists.

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Category: Astrophotography

M39 is a small cluster of stars a short way north-east of Deneb the 'tail' of Cygnus the swan.

M39

M39 open cluster.

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Category: Astrophotography

This irregular cluster contains about 100 stars.

M38

M38 open cluster.

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Category: Astrophotography

M34 is loose cluster of about 400 stars that is relatively easy to see with binoculars, it covers an area of the sky roughly the same as a full moon.

M34

M34 open cluster..

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Category: Astrophotography

The Sagittarius Star Cloud isn't really a discrete object, it's a bright part of the Milk Way, near its core, that isn't as obscured by dust as most of our view of our own galaxy.

M24

M24 is a dense part of the Milky Way.

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Category: Astrophotography
  1. M23 - Open cluster in Sagittarius
  2. M17 - the Omega Nebula
  3. M16 - The Eagle Nebula
  4. M15 - Globular cluster in Pegasus
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