All things Astrophotography & Astronomy! This includes tutorials, vlogs on images I've shot, and how you can get involved in this amazing hobby! Keep your head up, clear skies are on the way.
"The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork. Day to day pours out speech, and night to night reveals knowledge. There is no speech, nor are there words, whose voice is not heard. Their voice goes out through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world." Psalm 19:1-4
Its hilarious you mentioned not being in a park after night, i went to a park near my house which is an awesome park but by all means its dangerous. In the middle of culminating my telescope i hear a cop siren next thing i know i hear a whole gang of coyotes....and they are close. Luckily i carry an ir camera and saw the pack advancing at me pulled out my phone and 🔫 and chased the pack down 😂 and no i didnt hurt em they ran too fast
It depends on how long you want your exposures to be. Either way, you’ll want to get your polar alignment bang on. That goes a long way in getting longer unguided exposures. If it were me I would experiment with it first, and try to get practice with polar alignment and then see how long you can expose without your stars trailing. There are of course several benefits of guiding-greater accuracy in tracking often times, as well as the ability to meaningfully dither between exposures to prevent what is called “walking noise”.
Not a dumb question! If you're referring to how you incorporate them, there are several ways to do it (also depends on the software you're using). If it were me, I would combine them in photoshop by first aligning them on top of each other (you maybe able to get Photoshop to auto-align them for stacking). After that, I would either do some sort of manual masking/blending to preserve the brightest parts and process the outer parts, or I would try some Stacking Mode that might be suitable (perhaps Maximum--not really sure). I've had more experience with manual masking than I have had with rote Stacking Mode (tends to provide a little greater control).
Thanks, I will see where they are tonight on Stellarium and do some planning, I have a fast 105 mm prime lens that I will compare with my 80-200 f2.8 and see which has less coma. Perhaps I should sacrifice zoom for clarity?
You could! If it were me I would Google to see which ones perform better with regards to flat field, star shape--and at what f-stop too. Some cameras perform significantly better if you shoot just a little bit up from wide open (so maybe like f3.2 in your case, not sure).
Thanks, that's so helpful! Onwards and upwards! A steep learning curve awaits but it keeps my mind occupied! I am in New Zealand so have a different night sky heaps of interesting stuff. Have a great weekend!
It's really great and the most entertaining and informative video I've ever seen about astrophotography. I can't wait to go to a dark place, shoot the milky way and apply what's in the video. I subscribed, man, thank you for this beautiful video.
Good day! So I have bought a Sky watcher star adventurer 2i pro pack. To get a decent image of Orion, how many minutes in total should I take and how many calibration frames, flat, dark and bias? Thanks again for your help.
Great, that’s really exciting!! Now that you can take longer exposures to capture more of the outer nebulosity you will probably want to take several sets of photos. Your long exposures are going to blow out the core, so the key is to take two or perhaps even three different sets of exposures. The length of the exposure depends on a lot of things (speed of lens, brightness of sky, etc.) but if it were me, I would take some test shots and try to capture the following: a set where you are able to see the stars in the core (Trapezium)- The color of this nebulosity will probably look greenish; a set where expose for the nebulosity beyond the core and outward; and then a set where you expose for the very outer nebulosity and dust. The number of minutes in total also is affected by your set up and where are you are shooting so it is kind of hard to say. That said, this is such a bright target you can usually get away with much less time. if it were me, I would Google your set up and Orion nebula and see what comes up. Chances are someone has probably already shot the nebula with your exact camera and lens set up because the Orion Nebula is such a popular target. That can be a great starting point. Regarding the flat dark and bias frames, I would take 20 to 30 of each. I will say that the Orion nebula isn’t really in season right now, so you may have better luck planning for a different target until autumn in the N Hemisphere rolls around. if you can go to a dark sky site, there are plenty of options, including Rho Ophiuchi (which I did a tutorial on). I hope all of that helps!!
@@BurgerOosthuizen It depends on the object. Objects that are very bright in one portion may be better captured by taking varying exposures length. With the Orion Nebula, if you want to capture the brightest part in detail, your exposures have to be short, or else it will get washed out and you'll lose color and detail (sensor "buckets" get "full" so to speak). But, you still want to get the outer faint nebulosity and dust. So, you take some short exposures and stack them (to get the detail in the core) and the you take longer exposures and stack them (to get the outer detail). You then combine both sets of images into one final image that blends the inner detail (short exposures) with outer detail (longer exposures). Hope that helps!
Thank you so much for watching! I’ve had a lot of success with some you can get off of Amazon. NEEWER makes some aluminum ones that pack up nicely and are in that price range, but there are other alternatives also in that range from different makers. I do recommend getting one with a ball head and quick release plate-that way, if you do want to shoot something directly overhead, it is easier to do than if you were using a tripod built more for panning. Hope that helps!
Thanks for watching! I would try googling the focal length of your phones camera, as well as the sensor size. It gets a little bit tricky, however, if you’re going to use your phone with a telescope because then you have to account for the lens on your camera and the telescope focal length. Honestly, the best approach might just be taking test exposures and seeing how long you can expose the image without the stars trailing. Hope that helps!
@@40spray yes, but it does depend on if you are using a tracking mount. Without a tracking mount, you will be severely limited and how long your exposures can be. But if you can take longer exposures on a tracking mount, a telescope is going to give you much closer images of the nebula. Hope that helps!
Me again, so I have taken the photos of Orion and am now going to process them, just a question, when looking at a RAW image how can I tell if my focus was good?
A good way to tell is to look at the stars and see if they seem bloated. You’ll be able to see over time as you take more photos of the same or other targets how the sharpness of the stars compares. Also, as you begin to process the image, you’ll be able to see if the details in the nebula are blurry, or if they are more sharp. There are automated ways of doing it with other software, where the size of the stars are measured. If you’re doing it just visually in Photoshop, it’s one of those things you’ll get better at with time on being able to quickly determine if your exposures are out of focus (it will look just a little bit softer). Hope that helps!
Thanks, that's very helpful. The distant stars look small with Rigel bright with a blue halo in the test shot, so maybe I will be okay 😁. So glad you are willing to help out! Thanks.❤️
@@brucewilliamsstudio4932 thank you so much, I’m glad you enjoy it! I try to make the long process enjoyable and engaging, haha, so it’s great to hear you appreciate it!
It depends on what you want to capture. If you Google 50mm images of Orion, you’ll see that there is some beautiful nebulosity in the entire constellation which you can capture with long exposures and a 50mm. However, Orion will be pretty small in that field of view, and you have to go to dark skies to be able to capture it best. If you’re focusing on just shooting the Orion Nebula like in this video, I would use a telephoto lens because that will get you “closer” so to speak. Hope that helps!
Thanks for watching! Often times you can use the same techniques for processing the image, but the workflow may be different. I used a lot of the same techniques to shoot and process the Andromeda galaxy (which I’ll hopefully put out a tutorial on in the future). Regarding the flat frames, I had a hard time in this instance capturing good flat frames, so I didn’t bother including it because I didn’t want to confuse anyone. However, I have developed a better approach I think, which I will probably include in the Andromeda galaxy tutorial. Hope that helps!!
THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR THIS! I recently started finding myself dwell deeper into astronomy and what really caught my eye was M42. Like everyone else mentioned, this is one of the best videos I have watched and understood by far! Can’t wait to try this out with my family, but I guess we’ll have to be patient because it’s starting to get cloudy here in Sri Lanka. I thank you once again for this amazing video and the amount of effort you put in. Kudos!
Thank you so much for watching and for the very kind words!! I am so glad to hear you enjoyed the video and that it will help you and your family enjoy space and astronomy more! Clear skies!
I am already a big fan f yours, having watched a lot of your videos!! But with respect to dslr astrophotography i had to wait sooo long, but now I finally have my hands onn a dslr, a Canon EOS 6D, i bought it used with a 50 mm, and am looking forward to galaxy season, however i am still conflicted whether or not to buy the 75-300mm kit lens, since i already have a celestron 70mm aperture travel scope with 400mm of focal length, so i would be really grateful for your advice!(One more thing is that during my college days, i am also trying bird and wildlife photography, so thats where the conflict comes from)
Thank you so much for all the support, I appreciate it! Congratulations on your camera and lens, that is so exciting!! Weighing the benefits of which lens/setup to get is always tough. As you said, other photography interests can be hard to balance with Astro. That said, you can use kit lenses for Astro, as seen in the video. It definitely can be a bit harder though because the f-stop doesn’t quite go as low as lenses like the 50mm you have. One thing you could maybe consider if you are serious about getting into Astro, is a star tracker-that will let you take long exposures with the camera and lens you already have. However, I’m inclined to suggest buying a lens that you can use for birding and Astro, as you seem to have an interest in both, and I regularly use my camera lenses for both Astro and outdoor photography. Hope that helps!
That is extremely helpful! I don't want to go overboard, as I am prone to doing! So I will keep it simple, I'm not about to take over the world with my images, just want to learn something new. I really appreciate your generosity in sharing your experience with complete strangers like me😊
Thank you so much, I really appreciate hearing that and it is really encouraging to me! I’m in tech support, hence why I like working with gear and computers lol.
That is the age old question with astrophotography! Lol. It honestly depends on a lot of factors, like: aperture of lens, sensitivity of camera, length of exposure, brightness of sky, etc. for these tutorials, I generally tend to go with a number that will give the audience enough data to work with, without going seriously overboard on the shutter count. I have seen plenty of great tutorials where 500 to even 1000 photos have been taken. This just goes to show how much of a game-changer having a star tracker or tracking mount can be, because you can significantly cut down the number of exposures since your exposures are long exposures. I think if you took 500 or 700 photos, you probably would get a noticeable difference in quality, but that means taking close to twice as many which some people don’t want to do. I stuck with the number that I thought is sufficient for data without overdoing it too much lol
@@BurgerOosthuizen Yep! Some of the more popular ones these days are the SkyWatcher Star Adventurer 2i or Star Adventurer GTi, and the iOptron SkyGuider Pro. But if you are thinking about getting even more into the hobby, you can pick up some equatorial mounts for around $1000 that will let you mount larger telescopes. However, people usually get the star trackers first and then upgrade if astrophotography is something they want to continue-id probably recommend getting a tracker first. Buying used can be a good way to save money, but like anything, you always have to be careful when purchasing from strangers and make sure it’s legit.
Please don’t apologize at all! Yes, nifty fifty lenses are great for Milky Way photos-tracked or untracked. It would probably help to take a bunch and then stack (since you’ll probably be limited 5-10 seconds for exposures). Hope that helps!
Definitely the f/2.8! The faster the lens the better when you are shooting untracked astrophotography, because you can capture more data in shorter time-which is what you want because you have to keep your exposures short. Hope that helps!
I was relieved to hear about it not being necessary to use a full frame, my Nikon d700 is over exposing, I have sent it to see if it can be repaired and have ordered a d7500 which I hope will be adequate. Do you have a members site or a donation arrangement, as I don't want to take advantage of your kindness. BTW I appreciate your site name, I am one of Jehovah's witnesses and agree that the universe speaks volumes about our creator.
@@BurgerOosthuizen I’m sorry to hear about the repair. And I’m happy to help, no need to pay! Maybe someday I’ll setup a donation page for a charity because I would love for this YT channel to help people that way ultimately, but we will see. If I ever do that, feel free to donate lol!
Nice video, I can't get the same results but only get the stars with no other detail. Do you have any suggestions on what settings to look for? A frustrated chronic beginner! Thanx for any help you can give.
It’s friggin bonkers that RU-vid JUST recommended you. I hope all is well. If so, please come back! (This is my second video. First was astral photos with a camera, lens, and tripod. Instant subscription! Best one on the topic that I’ve ever seen.)
Thank you so much for the very kind words, I so appreciate it! Haha life has really pulled me away from things but I’m going to try to get back into it. I’m so glad to hear that you enjoy the videos, and that the tutorial was helpful. Thank you again!
YAY! Life has been pretty freakin unkind. Period. Just getting on the other side of a years long struggle, myself. It’s actually what has allowed me to get back into things that I love, like photography. Hope there is a joyful/relieving upturn for you & I will be rooting on a return! You’re VERY talented & amusing to watch…& my ADHD, which can make things harder, thanks you for your videos, as well! ☺️
@@madonna816 I'm sorry to hear about your struggles, that's a shame. But I'm glad to hear you enjoy the videos, and thank you so much for the words of support, I really appreciate it! The videos take a lot of effort, but knowing they are appreciated and helpful makes it better!!
London is the absolute worst for astrophotography. Yes, there's a lot of light pollution, but that's not the issue. It's the weather. There's always at least 75% cloud coverage here and I only get to take astrophotography photos every other week. I'll try doing this when I get the chance.
Tried this for the second time. got ok resutls with the camera but when i try to edit it in photoshop there is a red tint in the photo. when i adjust the levels the histogram is in the very left side and the red tint is very visible in the nebula when adjusting the levels. Ill shoot again when i get the chance but damn its hard.
If you are getting a red tint in the photos, there’s a good chance your grey point may not be balanced and your levels are different. I would open up the levels (Ctrl+L and try to adjust the Red channel slider until the red tint is removed-but be careful not to clip it and cut the Red histogram). Hope that helps!
@@theheavensdeclareastro I've tried what you suggested and I got rid of the red tint. But now the color of the nebula is blue when I change the saturation and vibrance, I'll probably need more time practicing the edits. I also think it has to do with the camera I'm using which is a rebel T5 with the 75/300mm. I'll try again sometime with at least 500 stack pics. Thanks ☺️👍
@@xen1954 If that happens, you can do the same thing with the other channels (Blue and Green) until your background is a neutral color and align the peaks of the RGB histograms. Sometimes I have to adjust the levels individual to achieve that balance. Hope that helps!
@@theheavensdeclareastro I was researching about why the red tint shows up and I think it has to do with the flat frames I took. I tried to edit the full photo without cropping and I saw the red vignette and I edited it out but was i losing a lot of data of the photo. I'll try for the 3rd time and hopefully I get the results I want. Thanks for the advices. I appreciate it ☺️
Thank you this video show me how much of a dicipline is require to do these things. I started with a budget telescope and i would definitely love to upgrade to something more professional even if it takes me years to learn how to use it. Can you tell me how whats the model of your telescope so i can get in the right track? Thanks again
Thank you for watching! I’m glad to hear you are getting into astrophotography! For this video I used a few different setups-I used a small apochromatic refractor (William Optics Z61) and a 10” Meade SCT. If you’re getting into astrophotography you’ll want to make sure you have an appropriate tracking mount to put your scope on-in some ways, that’s just as important if not more, than the scope you get. The tracking mount will let you take long exposures because it will compensate for the rotation of the earth. As far as scopes, I would recommend a small refractor to start out with. Refractors are much easier to work with when getting into astrophotography and are more forgiving in several ways than large, reflecting telescopes that use mirrors. They are also much lighter and you can use them with a smaller mount or even star tracker. I would recommend something like Aperture 60, Zenithstar 61, or Sharpstar 61. Hope that helps!
Ive accidentally taken pictures of this nebula before without knowing it was that. I will definetly be trying this method instead of just taking one and running with it
I’m 40 years old and I never celebrated Valentines just because I think it’s cheesy. I always gift on the day before or the day after BUT this video inspired me to give my first Valentine gift ever! I mean that’s really special, astronomically romantic and cool! Thank you!
That was a really good video. Do you only use PS or do you have a video / can make a video with luminar neo? Also would the flat frames substitute the vignetting work?
Thank you so much I really appreciate it! I actually have used a few programs including paid software like PS and PixInsight, but also free software like Photopea. I may mention Photopea in my next tutorial on the Andromeda Galaxy. As far as the flat frames, yes! I had a hard time getting flat frames at the time with the 50mm, which is why I didn’t include them in the video. The 50mm is kind of finicky, but I think I’ve gotten a lot better with it, so I’ll probably include them in the Andromeda tutorial. But yes you can and if you take them properly they work pretty well! Hope that helps!
