Astrophotography with a DOBSONIAN TELESCOPE! 

5:50 12+ years of astro, and look at that reaction. That's what it's all about.

One of my favorite videos so far. It shows beginners what that "OMG!" feeling is like. What a feeling when you see things for the first time.

Every breath you take, And every move you make, Every bond you break, Every step you take, I'll be watching you.

Loved this! Excited to see more of what you do with that 14" Dob...such a fun avenue of astronomy. They have satellite tracking for that now too, get that ISS shot!

This is what I love the most about your channel. You make astrophotography approachable for anybody that wants to try it. The WOW reaction you had is what makes it so fun. Of course, I enjoy the incredible shots you get when things are complicated and expensive gear is needed. But this is why I started watching, subscribed and then joined your channel. Four years later, and I'm still wowed by the wow moments. Thanks Trevor...for all of the virtual adventures we've shared together.

Thanks Trevor, I always love seeing Dobsonian astrophotography! For the first two year of doing AP I exclusively shot untracked with an 8inch Dob. It's surprising how far an entry-level planetary camera (ZWO ASI120MC), good Barlow lens, and LOTS of patience will go towards shooting planets with a Dob. I was able to get some really exceptional pictures of Jupiter, Saturn, Mars, and Venus, but it took a lot of practice and sitting out in the cold/hot/mosquitos, trying to keep the telescope steady as the planet stayed on the camera sensor for only 3-5 seconds before drifting away. I eventually got an equatorial platform and shot some DSOs (Orion, Ring, and Dumbbell nebulae) with pretty decent results. While my dedicated AP rig produces far better results now, there is a unique thrill of shooting DSOs on a budget with the "wrong" equipment!

I have a 10-inch reflector on an equatorial mount it and love it for its ability to pull in a lot of light for visual astronomy as well as getting some pictures of the solar system.

Thank you for this, I recently bought a 10” Apertura Dobsonian but I’ve been regretting it because it’s nearly impossible to escape the light pollution where I live in the middle of LA. At night I’m surrounded by bright porch lights and motion-sensing lights, but this video at least gives me some motivation to continue trying.

Great video Trevor! I started astrophotography just over a year ago with an 8 inch Dobsonian and a DSLR and a planetary camera! It's just amazing how much light those telescopes can gather. Now, I got a 10 inch Goto Dobsonian with a QHY268C and going deep space (ok, the camera might be overkill, but we always want bigger and better I guess 😂) I hope you're gonna try your 268 on that big 14 inch!!!

Great video Trevor, I love your reaction to the ring nebula. That reaction takes me back to when I saw Saturn for the first time in my very basic telescope!

Bro, the timing of this video. I just purchased my first telescope yesterday and it was an 8” dob. Looks like I’m gonna have some fun when it arrives Monday!

Astronomy and astrophotography offer endless fascination and pleasure. There are so many facets to the hobby- visual, photography, collecting, tinkering, computer processing, artistic expression, scientific learning, personal development, and much more. Whenever I feel like I'm getting burnt out, I just switch gears with new targets, or equipment, or try an old technique, or just sit outside in a lawn chair and watch the sky. I've tried photography with my 10" Dobsonian, even done some lucky imaging. This video makes me want to try out an astro camera on the big tube (my DSLR required a Barlow to focus). Thanks for another great video and for sharing your journey with us.

Welcome to EAA astronomy. far simpler than astrophotography. EAA is viewing live stacking, and ASIair or Sharpcap is used for this

A lot of people are now doing EAA and often use Dobs, or alt alz mounts.

As much as I hate nights when the moon is up for astro, I still find the detail that the moon shows when I image it, breathtaking..

Thanks Trevor. I just received the ZWO 224MC and the asiair plus for my 8se. Though planetary I'm going to explore and see what I can catch. You never know. Surprises is what makes this hobby so fun. Clear skies!

I was scratching my head when you just mounted you camera straight to the focuser on your 8" Dob and I had to go back to look at that again. That must be a lower profile focuser than the one I have on my Orion Skyquest XT8. I had to use a 2" 2X Barlow lens to get my cameras to focus.

Hello Trevor! I would just like to say I love your videos and content. You have inspired me to get into astrophotography and taught me lots about it. Because of your videos I have brought many telescopes and mounts and I will continue to do so 😂. Because of you I have been able to understand so much more about the night sky, telescopes and astrophotography and I just want to say thank you. You are someone I look up to and am inspired by you. Thank you for your amazing work and content.

Everything I’ve ever done has been on a Dobsonian and I’ve got some fantastic images from that process.

I love seeing the growth of the b-roll and editing over the years! Goals!

Can't wait to see Saturn & Jupiter through this 14 inch scope!

Uggghhh, I'm SO jealous!!! Got some decent pictures of the moon last week with my 500mm mount, but those shots you got are amazeballs

Awesome Trevor, I do Astrophotography with a Small reflector and An Alt-az Tracker! I remember my first time Taking pictures of moon and my first Telescope! It was insane! Loved the video

I love your videos, you are so talented and educated you have taught me so much about how and what to use to get the best photo or image. Thank You.

There’s something about the simplicity of a Dob! Great video Trev and Ash! Dr B from Manitoba, Canada 🇨🇦

I am using a dob 6" with smartphone adapter and the results are amazing. But because its untracked you can get max 1.6 sec exposure and iso 6400 is perfect for bright nebula

I shot an occultation of Saturn by the moon over 20 years ago. The vid is on my page. I used a hand held video camera with my TAL6" newtonian.

Great video, I have the 16" version and also do astrophotography with it as well. I use Sharp cap and live stack with it. Works great that way. Cs

I've always been meaning to get a mount for a phone to line up the camera. I find using burst mode is the best for taking manual pictures with a phone because you can just hold the button down and it will just continue to take pictures while you can make micro-adjustments to the phone, the hard part is just sifting through 100's or 1000's of pictures at the end of the night to pull out the good ones. I've taken some pretty rad pictures of the moon including during the last eclipse this way.

I managed to take extraordinary photos of the Moon with my phone and a telescope like this. It's crazy how good it looks.

You are the master of the universe. Hartmut

This is great, I've been gearing up to do a full tutorial video on planetary imaging with a manual dob.

Seeing this kind of thing really feels like peeking into a room your father told you not to go near as a kid. When I think about it objectively, it's utterly mind-blowing that we can do this, and it's only going to get better. Gonna be able to record an astronaut on the moon from Earth one day.

Fabuloso amigo Trevor soy astronomo aficionado de Honduras y estoy practicando la astrofotografia conmis dos teléscopios saludos

Lovely images (Ash) !!! And the Dobsonian telecope images are amazing also. Continued interest would make John Dobson (RIP ) proud.Thanks Trevor !

What an awesome video and incredible results !

I have been doing it with a Orion XT-8 on Sky-Watcher EQM-35 PRO.. Up here at northern lattitudes N60+ no need for hours worth of data when that light bucket does so well.

I really think if you lucky image on ring nebula and risk your pc to burn when you stacking you can take way better images with your dobsodian other than your own high end AP gear. I have one newt and one widefield telescope and this one got me thinking. Also another think is if you get Barlow you can get way better planets with that cam and aperture.

I really don't have a lot of money so I've struggled to get into this hobby. One of my biggest regrets is not buying an 8 inch dob earlier, I started getting interested in telescopes very late 2019. Then some funny little thing happened in early 2020 that (among many other things) made telescopes much more popular. I remember I think on amazon's prime day in 2020 I saw an 8 inch dob go on sale for $389.99. At the time I didn't do it because I didn't know if I wanted to commit "that much money" to something I wasn't sure I'd stay interested in (spoiler: I did stay interested). Later into 2020 and into 2021 telescopes started going up in price. At first I thought "huh odd, probably just a little price hike to manage the current demand spike, I'll get one later". And then they just kept going up... and up... and now an 8 inch dob is $700 instead of $450-500, and I'm starting to think it's not a temporary thing. Really disappointing to see this, and how no one mentions how much prices for this hobby have skyrocketed in the past 2-3 years Edit to say, same story with the Nexstar 8SE. I remember seeing people recommend it a lot as the super easy to use first telescope if you had the money, then in one fell swoop it went from $1100 to $1600 and I see people mention it less now because a lot fewer people are gonna have the money :/

Fun thing, you demonstrated it in a very daylight environment, it's 1000% sure you can expect way more quality in the middle of a dark and clear night. We'll done!

Late to the party but I loved this video mate, perfect :-)

I got some cool shots of M42 with a 10" dob and DSLR a few years ago.

Thank you. I've been of this opinion since I started 6-7yrs ago. Just never had the $ or room to get a Dob.

Ha everyone told me you can't do this. But here you are this is what I was doing a cpl years ago with a Meade 90. My results were as shocking to me as your gasp was. Nebulas no but, planetary, I don't have the edit skills for that. So cool

I love this video! I feel seen with my 8" dob and cellphone. 😊 I've managed to shoot (some of) the rings of Saturn. I got a video of Io passing in front of Jupiter. But my favorite is a pic of the Andromeda galaxy. 😁

I use the Baader hyperion ocular that attach to the T2 ring on the canon works great

YES!!!! im super new and love these tips and such. I have the same 8inch and I have been trying so hard to stay the course without ditching for a smarter scope with apps and base tracking. I do have a swarf 2 but thats cheating too easy.

Now this was an exciting watch! I have been wanting to get into astrophotography. Looks like I'll be getting a phone adapter for my 6" dop and going for the moon!

I have an adapter for my Nikon D5600 that allows me to attach my barlow lenses right to it. Bam! Magnification!

Amazing Loved this

Thank you for making this video. All of the experts say that you need an equatorial mount, but when you’re on a budget, you’re forced to get creative. I’ve been taking long exposure DSO images with my Celestron 130SLT since December. It’s not as easy as it would be with a dedicated astrophotography rig, but it’s still allows me to experience the hobby

Correct me if I'm wrong, but when viewing some of the closer planets like Venus or Mars, since they are so bright, a large telescope like the 14" dobsonian isn't necessary. When it comes to those planets, I think a smaller refractor would do better and produce sharper images than a large reflector. A large reflector is better suited for deep space objects like galaxies and nebulas.

Nice one thanks Trevor. 👍

Great Video Trevor❤. Can you make a video were you look at the other planets like Saturn, Jupiter, Uranus or even Neptune.

thank you so much! i bought the omegon eq-3 and thought i couldn't take any pictures, but it tirns out i can! i am going to try the ring nebula as soon ad the clouds clear up! so in about three days. again thank you so much!

Thank you.

I had no idea my phone had a pro lol. Thanks for that!

Astrophotography through a dobsonian is super easy, barely an inconvenience.

Trevor, leave it to you to marry AP with visual and make it sound as simple as turning on a light switch. Bravo! I'm gonna stay visual if that's O.K. with you but I'm impressed with the way you got the two to merge. See you at BFSP!

Would you be willing to make a short or video about seeing Jupiter and or Saturn through the dob. I got an 8” dob a few days ago and so far I’ve only had cloudy weather. I was shocked to have seen the rings of Saturn and the cloud lines on Jupiter with my 5” but I’m even more curious to see how well an image can come out with your expertise as well as with some heavy equipment. Thanks and keep on doing the great work!

I got a pretty decent image of the Orion nebula a few years ago with my 10" Lightbridge and Galaxy S9+

Great vídeo! 😎👍 My next step is to buy a camera for astrography like a ZWO ASI 224 MC C and a equatorial mount for my dobsonian telescope of 10” to allow me to take photos with more expousere time! Keep going! 😎💪

Great content! I'm telescope rich and camera poor, but I finally picked up a used canon eos rp a month or so ago. A 2" wide, full frame adapter for the rp has just arrived so I'll be keen to give the Dob-photog' a try along with one of my other equatorial mounted scopes! I've only done a bit of eyepiece - android phone photos so far. Prime astrophotography is something I've wanted to do since I was a boy dreaming of 35mm cameras and hypered film.... (yeah, I'm gettin old...) Lots of options to choose from opening up to me here! Thanks Trevor! /Dave

agree, great video!

With the 14" Dobs, there is an EQ platform that is available for them.

Earlier, love from India ❤

Honest take, this is why my 8 inch dob sits in the corner collecting dust. Forget astrophotography. Getting everything aligned, swapping lenses, and being able to catch a glimpse of something (besides the moon) can easily take the fun out of star gazing. By the time you get something, you have maybe 10 seconds to view it before manually adjusting everything all over again. You’ll invest upwards of $1,000 for this experience. If you want to check out planets and deep space objects along with automatic sky tracking, get ready to spend a minimum of $3,000. The reality of this hobby is having an extra $10k lying around or making friends with someone who already has an extensive/expensive setup.

Got lots of moon shots with my R5C and the RF 100-500 handheld :D

Awesome work 👏🙌🙏

I just added tracking and GoTo to my Explore Scientific 20" Dobsonian. I am planning to do some imaging with it soon.

Reflector telescopes are sold by diameter, but it's misleading. Since it's a "light bucket" you're looking at how much area the circle has. A 14" dob has over 3x the area of an 8" dob.

I have the 12" skywatcher, need to get the tracking mount though

I take my "8 Dobby to the beach and allow people passing by to connect their phones and snap pics of the stars and Moon. Always a crowd pleaser

Hello Trevor! Love your videos! Btw do you have any merchandise? because if you did I would definitely buy some :)

Did you? Did you image Jupiter and Saturn this fall? Love my dob for astrophotography but it is just toooo heavy for me to move about! Great video..."uuuuh..it's there!".

If you could find and build a permanent-mount equatorial stand, you could (probably) mount that 14" beast and use it for your typical astrophotography shots. You'd just have to do a lot of stitching image sections together to make up for the comparatively narrow FOV. But then again, I do feel like that would just be way too much work for what it's worth.

Great video

I guess the only thing the a dobsonian is bad for, is long time exposure as the object will rotate (especially the closer you are to the poles).

Would love to use one. But gosh I feel it will be one of those scopes that you will use once and then let it gather dust. Very tough to move around. I'll stick to SCTs for visual for now...

I was expecting far better results coming from a 14 inch aperture. Once I saw Saturn through a 12 inches dob and it looked amazing even to the eye.

As long as the mount is ok there shouldn't be a reason you can just strap a camera to the biggest scope you can get your hands on.

Thank you for another great video. Although you said many times over the Dobsonian isn't meant for deep sky astrophotography, you didn't help viewers understand why not.

Been there done that. With my 16” f4.45. And my 8” f6.

Very beautiful video 🌟

i had a 12 inch zhummel was only 700 back in the day lol dang watertank to lug around

Upcoming DIY equatorial platform next!

Good job❤❤❤

Try having a look through one, sometime. 😆

That telescope looks more expensive than my 1988 Honda CRX...

You certainly can do astrophotography with a dob, i do it on my channel😊 will it be good as a proper rig and equatorial? Probably not but nothing beats the aperture of a dobsonian

Just wondering, what happened to 11 inch HD? Great video. Also great to know that you too enjoy ASIAIR as much as I do. I have got Mini version and it is mindblowing what that little mini box can do and how much easier is it to use. Especially how much time saving it is. You really get the max from the clear skies and not wasting any minute using it.

Hi Trevor, I’m guessing if you tried to connect the mount to ASIAIR and try to do platesolving?

What a excellent video to mislead beginners. You should make a clarification at the beginning that their photos will be very simple and limited. This kind of things happens when you are in a hurry to get another video only for the sake of getting traffic.

Dusts off his 8” Dob 😊

schmidt-cassegrain any time!

oh, how I miss doing this...

What’s that song playing during when he sees the ring nebula? Also, awesome video!

6” Dobsonian and an iPhone with an adaptor works well fo me

Man that music at the end what’s it called bc I need it

Loved the video but I lived it too. 😂