Deep-Sky Astrophotography HOW-TO (Step-by-Step) 

Few notes for better results: 1. When you do polar alignment refresh, step away from the mount, the weight of your body will affect where you point in the sky. 2. When you balance your scope, do it with all cables attached. Cables can greatly change balance of your scope, also you will see if your cables are going to catch on anything - your mount. 3. Platesolving with narrowband will be more successful if you change your GoTo exposure settings to 20 second, if still not successful, take a photo of 30s or 1min exposure and platesolve it. After that everything is very smooth. 4. For guiding at long focal lengths it helps to create darks for guide camera at the gain you are going to use to reduce the noise of guide camera. 5. Always remember LIVESTACK IN ASIAIR DOES NOT DO EQUATORIAL FLIP. WATCH YOUR TELESCOPE SO IT DOESN'T HIT THE MOUNT. 6. When IN AUTORUN MODE IT BECOMES CLOUDY AND AFTER EQUATORIAL FLIP GETS CLOUDY FOR SUCCESSFUL PLATESOLVING TRACKING WILL CONTINUE unless it finished full autorun, it won't park the scope. IT WILL CONTINUE WITHOUT STOPPING ALL DAY AND YOUR SCOPE MAY HIT YOUR MOUNT. Please help me to pass the info to them. GLOBAL TELESCOPE PARK FUNCTION NEEDED AFTER REACHING THE LIMIT OF THE SCOPE/MOUNT， Both - time limit and position limit for all observing modes. For sake of safety and equipment protection. 7. ZWO has released software for stacking and basic processing that is fast and free and produces great results, I love the denoise function. 8. For better cable management use the wider dovetail and run your cables underneath between the dovetail and the mount close to the point of the mount rotation. The forces caused by the pull of the cables, affecting your guiding will be proportionally smaller the closer you will get to the point of rotation. If I will remember more, I will write more

I have never seen a astrophotography RU-vidr with as good of photos of you, let alone amazing tutorials!

Hey Trevor, I’m applauding you and your wife for very, very clear explanatory of setting this scope!!! Beautifully done, MAN!!! You’re helping lot of Astro guys what to do!!!! SUPERB, brother jones!!

I really appreciate this video because it shows you going back to the basics which was what your RU-vid channel started off. Being. As time went by and you got more popular on RU-vid, your videos started getting a little shorter and a little bit more about the photo itself and not about the steps you took to get there or the types of filters you recommended for that particular object or even the amount of subframes or time of exposure. Thank you for going back to your beginnings and encouraging people to get into astro photography by being entertaining and thorough at the same time.

Honestly Trevor you have been the biggest help when I was starting out almost two years ago. Now way past a star tracker, I'm just finishing up a 100 hour project on the Triangulum Galaxy, and just bought an 8" newt. I truly don't think I could have every gotten this far without your channel. Even being a little more experienced, it's always fun watching your videos. Been thinking about doing an image of the whole question mark nebula, although the core seems to have a lot going on in your image by itself, amazing photo as always!

I come from an astronaut family (circa 1980) This is AWESOME and I can really appreciate it, so thank you.

Folks commenting that this is mislabeled for a beginners, there's a bit of perspective here. There's tons of videos with star trackers and DSLR and how to use them. When you switch to rigs like this you are still a beginner with all new equipment, the workflow is completely different. Not only that, if you spend any time on forums or FB groups, this is very much similar to a setup a beginner with a good bit of disposable income would have and ask questions on how to use. Very frequently they spend even more, so, the video is completely relevant given the community context. Finally Trevor, good video, I am surprised the synscan GTI/AltAZ setting in the AAP works, most of the time the EQMod Mount setting is recommended in the manual. So, if it doesn't work, folks can try that too since the mount will understand EQMod also.

This one video clarified so many steps in the process for me that I can't thank you enough Trevor. Simple things, like the level of patience required for polar alignment, leaving the filter out initially, slewing to the target first, then finding a nearby star to do a focus run, even reframing manually for the best image. Might be obvious to you, but until someone tells you, its not obvious. Even seeing the focus results for the main and guide camera helped me a lot. Thanks so much.

Trevor, of all the (must be) dozens of imaging tutorials I have viewed and downloaded, this is the most comprehensive of all. Warts and all ( how long it really took to polar align, for example) are really appreciated. And the fact that you stayed with Photoshop (rather than heading of the very complex PixInsight) makes this tut much more relevant to we ‘intermediate’ level imagers. Well done and thanks. Mel from Sydney

Thank you, Trevor, you really mean a lot to the community.

Finally got to sit down and watch this whole thing. This is now the guide I'm going to send to people when they ask how to get started in this hobby. I love this video - and I love that you guys used a bit of older/more common gear that is more affordable to beginners, instead of the latest and greatest astro gear which I know you guys own too. Top notch content, Trevor and Ashley. I especially loved how you showed the entire polar alignment process in the ASIAIR - I haven't really seen anyone else cover that in full detail. Yes it can take 5-10 minutes of just turning knobs back and forth, but it is such a mundane but crucial step of this hobby. Great job guys! If I could make ONE suggestion to anyone watching this: please make some layers in Photoshop so you can avoid destructive (unrecoverable) edits you make. I like to add a new layer for each major step I take and always leave a copy of the original at the bottom so you can go back. You can then save it as a PSD or TIFF file and save the layers so you can always go back and undo stuff.

Trev and Ash, you set the standard for helping astrophotographers master the craft. Your relaxed personal style sets the tone for the best presentation I have ever seen ….. and I have been trying to do this since we cut 35 mm film into pieces held in dry-ice cooled holders.

Thanks Trevor for going this step by step approach. You demonstrate just how important the basics are to obtaining beautiful images.

Right on this video today, another great one trevor! Hope the skies are clearer over the pond :)

Trevor, you got me started with this hobby back in 2016. I met you and Ashley at CSSP in 2017 (I think you even won an eyepiece on a raffle ticket I gave you). Now, after I've been away from the hobby since moving to Florida, watching your videos is getting me back into it again. I've dusted off my Explore Scientific ED102 and and ED80, joined the local club, and I'm looking to get out under the Florida skies very soon! Thank you for all of your videos. I know you've inspired so many people over the years. Keep it up!

This is perfect timing for me! Just got a very similar rig on Tuesday and have clear skies forecasted for tonight! So excited

I wasnt going to watch this at first as it was late & I was tired, & I was going to come back another night, but your warm profesional presentation style, informative dialog & honest enthusiasm just had me hooked & just had to keep my eyes open. It was such an enjoyable & educational tutorial, well done.

What an incredible much needed teaching tool this video is! Thank you, Trevor for you patience.

Outstanding Step-by-step Astrophotography workflow. Really very much appreciated. Very good! It's like having clear skies know-how. Thank you!

Thank you so much Trevor! I'm just getting started out with my kit, and you have explained so many questions I had about how to use the ASI Air App. I have also had heaps of fun editing some of your RAW photos using your processing guide. Thanks again!

Holy the effort you put into this is incredible! Thank you so much! ❤

My son and I just went through this process yesterday. I think we got it mostly right. Our target was the North American nebula, and it turned out great for a first run.

This is unbelievable. A free astrophotography course. Thank you.

Absolutely awesome that you put out this video. I would’ve loved to have this out when I started. I’m sure this video will put a lot of people in field. Nice work :)

thanks Trevor. I've been waitin for this

This is JUST the video I was looking for for maybe a whole year Thanks a lot It’s just perfect as always !

Fantastic video Trevor! Thank you (and Ashley) so much. This was very informative.

Hey Trevor, I really appreciate this particular video. It’s answered so many questions I had and for me this has been the best tutorial yet. Thank you so much.

Thanks for the great video. This is exactly what I was looking for. I just bought the Celestron CGX 9.25 edge HD , ASIAIR PLUS, and ZWO camera. Can’t wait for it all to be delivered. I am finally getting into Astro photography, your videos have been a great help

Your video answered so many questions for me. I've been wanting to get into this for so long but didn't know where to start. Thank you for your excellent tutorial!

Thank you for using that setup and the entire guide. Closely matches my setup and a lot of gold nuggets to make a big difference

Omg, this is perfect! This is literally what I wrote on your last video that you should do a video like this! Thank you, and this is just amazing!

This is a terrific high-level workflow of capturing an image, including both the equipment and software. This answers 1000 questions for the uneducated, like me. Thanks so much for your content. Well done.

Trevor, thank you for the step-by-step details. Even after so many years I sometimes miss a key step and just become frustrated (again). But patience always wins out.

Your thumbnails are getting better looking 😉 Great video as always 👍

That came out really nice! 3 days ago, I attempted to shoot the same target. I finally had nothing planned and the sky was the clearest it's been in a while. I took my gear out set it up and manually searched for the target. I used the STC Duo Narrowband filter on my modified Nikon D5500 and a Sigma 70-200mm f2.8 apo dg hsm lens on a Sky Adventurer Pro. My shots were looking blue and I couldn't figure it out. They usually come back red due to the filter I use. I just let it be, thinking it was a custom white balance I must have used and just left it. I'm shooting raw, who cares about the white balance. After 4 hours of imaging, I started shooting dark frames. After I was done, I brought all my gear in the house and started setting up for my flat frames. That was when I noticed I had a filter on the front of the lens for light pollution. DAMN!!!!!! I ran the images on DSS and my sorry ass image was extremely dim and had some weird coma around the edges. I was so disappointed I could cry. I've used that setup for a long time now and have had great success shooting in that configuration (minus the front LP filter). I didn't realize that front filter could do that when combined with the Duo Narrowband filter. I'm still trying to get a decent edit but it looks like I'm going to have to try again. At least the sky is going to be clear for the next few days. Cheers, guys!

Great video Trevor!! Keep up the great vids!!

I love these kind of Videos! I‘m getting quite serious into astro photography with my dslm and the lenses for that, but the next step is so big for me that i am soaking these informations like crazy! Give us more videos like this :)

RU-vid has been doing a terrible job letting me know when my favorite person has a new video :( Last night was my first session without the hand controller :o I started using plate solving in APT and it’s fantastic

Trevor, thank you so much for this video. I have a scope set up that is extremely close to yours and I have had it for nearly a year. I got so frustrated I gave up on it. To be honest I purchased the Seestar S50 about a month ago because I was so discouraged and using it has has got me some incredible photo's and wanting to go back to my original setup. Now after seeing you go thru this video, I'm confident that I can get it going. Really excited to get my scope going now. Great video, thank you very much.

Thanks Trevor, you are helping me a lot

That was a very informative session. Excellent job!

That is so awesome! I hadn't realized what the AsiAir was, I thought it was just a USB/WiFi hub. The electronics and software just blow me away, especially since I'm an embedded systems software engineer, so I know what goes into them. Thank you for all the great information!

Wow, this demystified most of my confusion about the workflow. (Just getting into it) Thanks so much!

Awesome video. So helpful to see the whole process from beginning to end.

Hi Trevor another honestly brilliantly helpful video thank u so much i just love ur Chnl Clear skies my friend

Outstanding primer to this. I'm just re-entering the hobby and trying to decide how to proceed. AP is much more common now than when I was observing in the distant past; I really was wondering what was involved and whether I was up to learning it (I think I am). Thanks

Great guide you did there! I’m a begginer and it helped me a lot. Thank you very much, sir!

Thank you so much for this video. I been struggling with getting my guide camera to focus. I will rewatch this video and go over all the details to get a first image. This should clear things up for me.

This is amazing! - I will have my Sky-watchers EQ5 Pro GT mount and a Sky-watcher Equinox 100/900 FPL53 APO arriving tomorrow 😬. I will be using it with my Sony A7rII full frame mirrorless camera. I'm glad to have found this channel. Im currently consuming all of your contents to be somehow ready for this new hobby! -- I am currently living in Spain right now, and the sky looks beautiful with full of stars just with the naked eyes.

Thankyou for this in-depth exploration on this incredible new equipment, I'm getting j old Meade ATX 75 ready after being away for some time. I'm still learning basic astronomy and would like to start capturing images with your explanation technique it makes it more fun, great to see your wife getting involved good on her. I'm hoping that I can adapt this new equipment to an outdated Meade telescope, much love and best wishes from Paul in Australia ❤🙏

Very good video with some great advices! I would suggest an EQ-5-Pro mount if your budget is a bit tighter. It will hold this setup easily. If you have no ASI AIR I recommend N.I.N.A. as an open source alternative! There are some awesome videos about that out there! Thank you, Trevor, for getting people in our hobby with this very good step by step video guide!

I happen to have this almost exact setup: ASI Air Pro, EQ6-R Pro, WO 80 APO, ASI 120 guide camera, ASI 2600 MC Pro, L-enhance filter. I had a complete mono setup but just found it too much effort and mostly stopped so i sold everything associated with that and recently went back to a one shot camera setup. I’m getting ready to start up again after almost 1.5 years so this primer video is perfect timing for me. Of course I still have my full RORO observatory where everything is setup on a permanent concrete pier but for getting back into the process again this will be useful … I’ve also been asked to give a talk about night vision Astronomy at the upcoming Chiefland Astro fest star party in mid Nov so I’m on a steep “get back into it” curve …

Terrific and spot on. Notable is your excellent use and discussion of using DeepSkyStacker for image selection before processing. Excellent, smart & key step, in my view. Even for me, a non-ASI-tools only and alone, player.

I got the same setup with a redcat 51, I can't wait to get out there!

An excellent video, Trevor!

Thank you for sharing this is helping me on what to buy so much appreciated!

great stuff Trevor i have an altair camera is there an alternative for this camera for the asi pro ?

Brilliant, and thanks for explaining back focus

excellent tutorial. i will have to wait until i can buy the AM5 mount. thank you

Great video Trevor as always. I wish we had more clear night sky's and less light pollution. The asi air looks like it can do it all.I still like my pole master I know I would be lost without it. These are the kind of videos that help so many people. You have helped me a lot when I was struggling so much. You have a canon t3i did you have your camera modified? Or do you like using filters better? Thanks for all your help.

Thanks for this you helped me so much

perfection as alaways!!!

Thanks. I know this was a lot of y'alls time to shoot and process. Much appreciated. Cool do & length on the other half's hair. One last item: Don't forget a close up of Rudy.!

When using a dual NB filter and plate solving, if needed simply tell the ASIAIR to take a longer auto centering exposure like 5s, 8s, 10s, etc depending on how restrictive the filter used is. No need to take filter out and put it back in.

I always like the step by step tutorial the result is amazing.

Fantastic end product.

Hey Trevor, I've been watching your videos from the beginning and this is probably one of your best tutorials! I think I may invest in a ASIAIR! Thanks

Amazing video and so helpful and weirdly 99% of what I am about to buy and is in my basket. Please can I ask what filter holder that is it isnt in your description and would I need spacers at all for connect the field flatters filters holder and a ZWO ASI 533MC Pro. Many thanks for your time.

hey trever, im in the southern hem and im still using my camera with a 18-70mm and 55-300mm kit lense and a trypod and im looking at getting the Sky-Watcher Star Adventurer 2i Pro Kit for $553 aud and i have the money to get it but im finding it very hard to actually buy it cause im in the southern hem and its alot harder to polar align accurately, also because of work i cant go out very often so i wouldnt use it very often so im just wondering if you think i should invest in the star tracker or just stick to a camera a trypod for the moment. clear skies

I'm just glad I wasn't the only person who used those velcro strips to hold my asiair down!!!!

Great video's, new subscriber ,been watching all your video's there great ,really love this Asiair set up with the cameras and cell phone controls no need to bring the laptop ,way less cables, this is the exact same set up id like to get myself ,thanks for the videos

Hey Trevor, I really liked and appreciated this video. I do feel though that for a beginner, you chose a lot of premium components that added up to a cost a beginner may not be ready to shell out for considering they are just beginning and may not even want to continue this hobby.

This video made me want to get some gear again. I sold my DSLR about a year ago to get some dedicated gear. Never got around to it though. But I gotta say the term "affordable" can be loosely used here. :D

Great vidio keep it going

Wicked i just got my first photo of m31 last night with my EdgeHD14 this helps alot bc i don't know much for astophotography

Great tutorial, not the least because my telescope and mount are almost identical. I have the EQ6R Pro but my scope is the William Optics GT-81. I haven't used my equipment in a few years (Pandemic) and I need to look into the ASI Air.

There is stacking in ASI air plus , did you use that , if not can you explain how you got the individual frames

I have learned quite a bit from you over the years. I think the only thing I would have touched on is framing using something like Telescopius. It's easier to set up compared to Stellarium.

Impressive stuff, and your instructions are superior. Now can you do one like this for those of us shooting without auto guide-just a motor? Bravo on all your videos, btw.

Hi Trevor haven’t had you popping up on my feed lately youtube playing silly buggers again.just had to reset to all videos .have managed to obtain some very good equipment but the seeing has been atrocious in NSW Australia the last 12 months so have had no chance to set it all up and use it. Can the mount you are using be set up with 2 telescopes ,that is rigged with one scope on thecounterweight side as well as the normal side ?? Thanks John

Amazing! Absolutely amazing! :) One beginner question… The focal length of telescopes - are they meant to be the length in full frame? So is your 430mm in full frame, or in the cropped sensor of your camera?

Im going to buy this setup in the next month or so.

Heya Trevor! I know you probably won't get around to this message anytime soon, but an answer would be nice. About a 1 month new fan here, I have a question for you, would you recommend getting a start tracker or a tracking mount as someone who is new to astrophotography? I'm currently using a nice and sturdy aluminum mount with a Gskyer telescope FL: 400m and a Canon Rebel T7. I would like to take way longer than just 2 second exposures but if nothing really work with that then thats good too. Thank you for your time and as always, may the weather be on your side!

does the asi air perform the dark, flat and bias frames

What dew heaters do you use?

Am i not supposed to tighten the clutches back down once im done polar aligning? if not, ive been doing that for a long time lol.

Very good, thank you. 👍🏻

I second that, this isn’t for beginners however his tutorial is very informative. This hobby is very involved and I just started with a simple star tracker. Not only to have to learn the use of the equipment which in his example costs many thousands of dollars, then you have to learn the editing software!!!

Do you guys always calibrate your guiding on the object or is there a specific region on the sky that is better just for the calibration? does it make any difference?

Maybe its a dumb question but do i have to realign my mount to polaris after i point my telescope to the region i want? Im running a skyguider pro with ipolar.

Hi Astrobackyard, im trying to use the Astrophotography tool but my 1300d dslr canon camera doesn't seem to work on it could you help me please. Most appreciated.

What power cable are you using for your ASIAIR? I have issues with mine constantly becoming loose and the ASIAIR loosing power. Yours almost looks like it has a screw cap on the end?

Haven't even watched the video yet, but I hope it's just what I need! The other month I went crazy and got a SVBony 80mm triplet refractor, Skywatcher EQ-6, some ZWO cameras (main and guide), and an ASIAir. Two nights out, and I've only managed to do the polar alignment and get the cameras focused. Nobody mentions that figuring all this stuff out in the dark is a lot harder than you think it will be! I'm cheating though since I also have a Vespera that I can easily program for the night and be guaranteed results while I fiddle around with my "real" telescope and try to learn how to actually do astrophotography.

Nice, Trevor. Why are you using a ST4 cable to attach the ASIAir to the EQ6R Pro? I use the USB port on my EQ6R and attach it to the ASIAir? I think the answer is that you have an older mount without the USB port.

thankyou so much now i can capture deepsky objects.

Can you get good images if you do not use the stand please tell

Do you need to take reference frames each night for multi night shooting? I.E., Darks, bias and flats. By the way, great video!

I've been using the asiair for a while now and never knew you could use the focus tool like that, I've just been eyeballing the bahtinov spikes

Can you just plug the asi120mm into the usb on the asi533mc? Save the slot on the asiair? I just bought the zwo 30mm guide scope, asi120mm mini guide camera, asiair plus, and asi533mc pro camera. Want to make sure I am plugging things in correctly. Will be using my Rokinon 135mm f2 lens (nikon mount) with my SA GTi mount. Clear skies! (I apologize in advance for any clouds in the near future as a result of getting new gear)