Starting in astronomy
beginner’s guide to stargazing
By Mike Barrett
Starting in astrophotography
If you thought buying a telescope was confusing and
complicated, then moving on to astrophotography
can be even worse. This arises because of the myriad
of different types of photography that can be done,
the budget available, and the celestial objects that
you want to image. Astrophotography can range from
taking starscapes with your existing camera at one end
of the scale all the way up to using dedicated CCD
wealth of options in between.
However getting started in astrophotography does
not have to be expensive, a lot can be achieved using
imaging equipment that you may already own, or
could borrow. This article will just focus (pun intended)
on the equipment side for your introduction into
astrophotography. Taking the picture is only part of the
sequence to obtaining some stunning images.
A later article will
look at the software
processes on your
Getting started in
computer that will
astrophotography
turn the output from
your camera into a
does not have to
jaw dropping picture.
be expensive, a lot I will also cover
more
advanced
can be achieved
astrophotography
in
another
article
using imaging
discussing guiding and
equipment that you combining images
to reduce noise and
may already own.
bring out more detail.
One
way
to
get
going
in
astrophotography is to try and use the imaging
equipment that you have already without spending
a penny. People may laugh at this, but it is perfectly
feasible. You will not get the best results, but at least
you will get some passable imagery, and with a bit
of patience and perseverance these can be very
acceptable. This of course means that you start with
your existing camera. These days almost everyone has
a camera in the form of a smartphone, and believe
it, or not, the smartphone can take some good astro
pictures.
16
16
Smartphones can take images through a telescope with an adapter, such as the
Orion SteadyPix, that holds it over the eyepiece.
Credit: Orion
Using a Smartphone
To use the phone’s camera all you need to do is line
it up with the eyepiece of a telescope and take the
picture. A lot of these will not be very good, but with
some practice you will improve.
This method of astrophotography is called afocal
imaging. The manufacturers have realised there is a
market out there for this type of photography and have
developed a number of attachments for telescopes
makes the process a lot more reliable and repeatable.
Using this method of imaging can also be applied
to compact cameras. all that is required is that the
camera can focus on the image in the eyepiece.
Of course there are limitations to this, in particular
the fact that this is a snapshot of the image and is not
suitable for long exposures, but it is a start.
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