Beginners Guide To

Astrophotography – A Quick
& Easy Tutorial Of How To
Take DSLR Astro
Photography

When I was a teenager, every year without fail, we would go

on our family camping trip. It was our traditional yearly
pilgrimage.

On a clear night and away from the city lights, I would look
up at the sky and always be fascinated at the large cluster
of shining stars deep in the sky. I would try and take
pictures of them with our point and click camera, but
usually, the images would come out just about black.

Things have progressed since those camping nights, and so

has my experience with capturing the night sky. I have
learned a lot (and made many mistakes) along the way. But I
am always learning and testing new techniques because
once you get past the initial learning curve, the images you
can capture are amazing and rewarding.

So here is my beginner’s guide to astrophotography, I’ve

laid out everything you need to know in a step by step
guide, by the end of it you’ll be able to capture gorgeous
astrophotography images, even if you’ve never touched a
DSLR camera before.

Table Of Contents show

What is Astrophotography?
Astrophotography is just another subgenre of photography.
While you have probably heard of the more traditional
photography genres like nature, landscape, street, portrait,
macro, and many others, astrophotography is all about
capturing images of the night sky.
To be more specific, it’s all about taking a picture of the
night sky, and the spectacular (one might say mysterious)
objects either you can see with the human eye (the moon
and stars for example) or go even further into deep space
photography like the milky way, nebulae or distant planets.

What outcome to expect?

By the end of this guide, you’ll have an actionable plan to go
out there and start capturing your first images of the night
sky, even if you’ve never attempted this before.

You’ll be quite surprised by how easy it can be to learn how

to start astrophotography, now don’t get me wrong, like
most hobbies you can go overboard with equipment and the
complexity of the whole process. But in this article, my goal
is to give you an actionable and simple plan to start
capturing your first night sky images.

Different types of astrophotography

image
If you’re new in the world of starting astrophotography, you
would think there is only one type of astro imaging, but as
you see further down below, there are quite a few sub-
categories of the topic. With each requiring their own
specific type of equipment and set up to capture their
image.
Below is a quick explanation of each of them.

wide angle astrophotography

Wide angle photography is an excellent type of

astrophotography for someone just starting out as it is the
least technical.

With minimal equipment required, just a DSLR camera that

you have lying about at home, a lens and a tripod you can
capture some fantastic images with minimal investment.

To capture this type of image, you would need a wide or

super wide angle lens for your DSLR camera. The types of
images you would expect to capture would include
capturing images of the stars and the milky way.

milky way photography

With the milky way being some 25,000 light years away, it’s
no wonder we can’t see it with our naked eye. But did you
know that a typical DSLR camera can capture it because it
can capture more light than we ever can?

With some quick settings, you can capture a pretty

impressive image of the milky way.

​Note: while the image capturing process is not too

complicated, you will still need to do some photo
 editing and cleaning up to get it looking like the
images below.

example of ​a milky way image

landscape astrophotography

Night landscape is a mixture of your local surroundings,

such as mountains or trees with either the stars or the milky
way in the background. Landscape gives you added visual
interest to your image foreground and adds a nice contrast
and definition to your images.
example of a landscape image

Time-Lapse astrophotography

Another sub-category of wide-angled astrophotography is

time-lapse. This, with a camera suitable for time lapses, is
the art of capturing many (we recommend shooting 250
photos per sequence) images and then combining them to
creating a spectacular time-lapse video.

Solar System photography

Now we’re getting a little deeper into space; these images

include capturing objects like our moon, the sun and all the
orbiting planets in our solar system.
Depending on where you want to photograph, now we’re
getting to the point where we need to attach the camera to
a telescope to get those breathtaking planetary shots.

​Note: brightness usually isn’t an issue here, but the

steadiness of the camera and stability are especially
important here.

example of a ​solar system image (​moon close up)

deep sky astrophotography

Deep sky imaging is where I spend a lot of my time

nowadays in this hobby. Capturing deep space
astrophotography images can be some of the most
spectacular photos you will see.
Here you are capturing images of objects like red and blue
nebulae, other galaxies and their planets and solar systems.

The only downside to deep sky photography is the setup

involved, to capture galaxies and nebulae, you will start to
need equipment like a dedicated camera (CCD),
astronomical telescope, equatorial mount, laptop (to control
the CCD camera).

So here you need quite a technical setup, and it can get a

little costly. But remember that with a bit of practice it won’t
take long and you’ll be able to produce some stunning and
unusual pieces of imagery with deep sky astrophotography.

example of a deep space image (red nebula)

Understanding the image process
So you have to take all these images on your camera and
now what? Here I give you a quick bird’s eye view on what’s
involved after you capture your images.

Later on, in this article, I go into detail on how to process

your images but right now here is the basic outline on
what’s involved.

Capturing deep-sky images – The basic

process is this:

​Steps to setup your DSLR or CCD camera and telescope.

1. Pick an object and set the camera focus

2. Capture multiple long exposure images
3. ​Transfer those images onto your computer.
4. ​Layer and combine those images to eliminate the noise
from the pictures
5. ​Edit the picture with editing software (like photoshop)
and correct the brightness levels of the image.

Plan your astrophotography shoot

Ok, now you know what type of astro images you want to
take and you probably already have most of the essential
equipment at home (like a DSLR camera and a tripod).
But before you learn how to take astrophotography pictures,
there are some things you need to plan, or you could be
very disappointed with the results you get.

Keep reading below to make sure you can capture the best
possible images on your photo shoot.

Light Pollution

The first step is to find the darkest spot possible for your
astrophotography setup.

A good location is where there is minimal to no light

pollution. While your backyard might seem dark, that
doesn’t mean there is not a large amount of light pollution in
the atmosphere. This is what we need to avoid as too much
light pollution (lights from your town or city or even street
lights) can hurt your images if you don’t adjust for them.

To help you in that task, I’ve added a list of apps that do as I

mentioned above. Locate where you live and see where the
light pollution is coming from. Then you can also see the
darkest surrounding areas to find a suitable spot to set up
for your photography shoot.

DarkSiteFinder.com – this site name doesn’t leave a lot

to the imagination but does precisely what it says. An
excellent tool for finding dark sky locations, you can
 use this pretty much anywhere as it covers the entire
earth.
Lightpollutionmap.info – Another site for track light
pollution and is useful for finding dark photography
locations close by.

Moon Phase

There are some handy apps to help determine the darkest

times of the month. Ideally, that is when you want to be
planning to get out there to capture those stellar photos.
The apps below allow you to see the moon phases for the
month. Very useful, indeed.
 Moongiant.com
Moon Phase Calendar (IOS)

​Tip: Avoid any night that has a full moon. The bright
light from the moon washes out all but the brightest
stars from the sky.

​Weather

Checking the weather ahead of time is another simple but

often overlooked task when heading out for an
astrophotography shoot. If you’re doing a quick photo shoot
in the backyard, then it’s not such a big issue.

But if you plan on going for a drive and taking your

equipment with you to setup then checking if it’s a cloudy
night or a clear sky becomes so much more important.

Check your local weather forecast and look for a clear and
cloudless night.
 ​Also, another tip is to go on a clear night following a
period of rain as that can help clear the usual
particles of smog and dust in the atmosphere.

​Where is the Milky Way?

Stellarium is a free desktop software that could be your one

stop shop for astronomy. It has just about everything you
need for finding the whereabouts of the milky way to
constellations and even planets in our solar system.

It can be a little overwhelming when you first load it up, but

it is well worth taking the time to get used to.

Finding the stars – Star Chart apps

Ask a beginner to look up at the sky and tell you what they
see, and they will usually say “stars” which is technically
correct. But as someone new to the hobby starts to learn a
little more, they begin to want to know the names of the
stars and constellations in the sky that they are
photographing.

That’s where we recommend some smartphone apps that

will help you locate specific objects in the sky. They’re
handy and will make your job much easier.

IOS: Stellarium
Android: Stellarium

Composition – suitable area to shoot

A Lot of photographers will suggest to scout a good

location and set up for astrophotography before it gets
dark, which is a great idea, by doing this you’ll get a full
range of your composition to see what’s around you. You
can set up after dark too, but hey, why make it harder than it
needs to, right?

Location, Location, Location

If your planning to capture landscape astrophotography

images, look for an area where you can use the natural
surroundings as foreground objects to use for your pictures.
Things like trees and mountains work well with the night sky
stars positioned as the backdrop. Then when you edit those
images you can make the stars and sky pop and become
the focal point of the image, we go into this in detail later on.

Bushwalking Safety

Many astrophotographers prefer to capture images in

locations like national parks and campsites (where your
away from the big city lights the light pollution is minimal).

So like everything else, try and come prepared, because if

you are setting up somewhere a little more isolated away
from the town you will need all your essentials with you in
case of an emergency.
setting up camp to get away from the city light pollution

Warm Clothing

Wear or at least take warm clothes with you (gloves also!),

since nighttime temperatures can drop significantly and
become uncomfortably cold during night time.

You don’t want to stop a good night photo session just

because you’re freezing, which can happen when you stand
or sit around for long periods.

Come prepared to bring warmer clothing than you think

you’ll need, just in case. Especially if your planning to trek
on a northern lights photography trip as the temperature
there can and regularly does fall below -0°C.

Night Safety

Again, if we’re out in an isolated area, it’s always best to

bring a few extra safety items for those just in case
moments. Below are only a few items we think you should
add to your arsenal.

Headlight
Flashlight
Compass
Warm clothing
Gloves (ones that also work on your smartphone)
 Hiking boots
sleeping bag (while waiting)

What equipment do I need for

astrophotography?
Telescope

If your planning on capturing deep space images, then you’ll

need to add a telescope to your arsenal. For beginners I
usually recommend they stick to a wide-field refractor
telescope, I prefer them for people just starting for several
reasons.

Their lightweight, so easy to move around.

Their field of view range is very forgiving.
No need for regular alignments (collimation).

If your on a budget or seeing if this “astro stuff” is for you,

then you can always skip the telescope and stick with your
DSLR camera, for now, you still be able to capture all the
wide angle astrophotography style images.

T Ring Adaptor

If you plan on using a telescope for deep space images,

then you’ll need a T Ring adaptor. Essentially this connects
your camera to your telescope. Using a T Ring is a simple
solution to making your camera and telescope work as one.
camera – which type to pick?

A camera is perhaps the most crucial piece of the puzzle as

it determines the types of images you can take and what
extra equipment you need.

So it’s essential to put some time into deciding what you’ll

be using as it’ll set the benchmark to what sort and quality
of images you can take.

As always, your camera, lenses, and the rest of the gear you
use should be kept safely and securely to avoid any damage
to them. I use and recommend a protective hard case to
keep everything safe, neat, and tidy.

Just a quick note, If your wanting to take quality night sky

images and are thinking of using your smartphone or even
those point and shoot cameras then stop right there. They
don’t have the image quality to be able to shoot at the
standard you need for low light photography.
In astrophotography, there are quite a few different subset
types of images you can take, as we discussed towards the
beginning of the article. Because of this, various types of
cameras are more suited than others for a specific task;
below we go into detail on each one.

DSLR

A DSLR camera (Digital Single Lens Relax) is always the first

camera I recommend as it is so versatile and great as an
entry level camera for astrophotography for beginners.
Their easy to get started, have a vast range of lenses and
add a tripod and you’re ready to start shooting.

The Canon series have been a staple in my astro imaging.

On the more premium end of the scale, the Canon 6D does
a great job, while if you’re looking for something a little more
price conscious, then the Canon Rebel T7i fits the bill nicely.

Mirrorless Systems

An alternative to the DSLR above, a mirrorless camera has

the benefit of being vibration free due to the “mirrorless”
design of the camera. They do a great job at long distance
landscape astrophotography, so another choice for taking
astronomy photos.

CMOS

Now we’re moving into the more dedicated cameras for

astrophotography.

A CMOS camera, which stands for (complementary metal-

oxide semiconductor), excels at the deep sky and solar
system astro photography images. It does so because its
capable of capturing images with a very high framerate at
long exposures.

The only downside, if there was one, is it does require

dedicated software to run, which adds a little to the
technical setup. But the images you produce here are more
than worth it.

CCD
The CCD camera, which stands for (charge-coupled
device), is another type of dedicated astrophotography
camera.

They excel at producing very low noise images, even when

capturing at long exposure times. They can do it so well
because they have their built-in fans/coolers which prevent
the sensor from getting too hot and overheating. Thus the
images they do capture are much cleaner than you would
get from a DSLR camera.

Crop or Full Frame Sensor For

Astrophotography

So you might be wondering what the difference between a

crop or a full frame camera is?

If you were to put a full frame and crop sensor camera side
by side and both take an image of the same object the crop
sensor will capture a smaller photo area compared to the
full frame camera — sort of like cropping back an image to a
smaller size.

If that’s the case, then why don’t we all use full frame
cameras only? Well for starters, a crop sensor camera is
considerably cheaper than their full frame big brothers.

Also, you definitely can capture some spectacular images

with a crop sensor camera. It’s just that the full frame makes
your job a little easier because it has a larger surface area
on the sensor; it captures more light so produces less
overall noise in the image.

​Camera Lens

Because were photographing at night, two main traits will

affect your astro photography images; they are focal length
and aperture size. Below I explain in more detail what each
of those means, but if you want to know what’s an excellent
lens to use for getting started in astro imaging, then the
Rokinon 14mm f/2.8 is a perfect choice.

Note – When it comes to the lens, just because you have a

Canon or a Sony camera, It doesn’t mean you need to buy
their lens. There are some very high-quality third-party
lenses, which are excellent astrophotography lenses.

Brands such as Rokinon, Sigma, and Tamron all make some

great third-party lenses for your camera and should be
looked at. The bonus with these is they usually are much,
much cheaper than first-party lenses from Canon or Sony.

Aperture

We’re looking for a lens with a large aperture, the larger the
aperture is, the more light the lens will allow to enter. An
aperture of f/2.8, f/1.8, or f/1.4 would be a good choice.

Focal Length

Another thing to consider is the focal length of the lens. The

longer the focal length, the more “zoomed in” the image will
be. That’s why we recommend a wide angle lens, so it
captures a larger surface area of your images. A
recommended focal length is anything less than 35mm.
Below is a video that explains focal length and aperture in a
bit more detail on a wide angle lens.

Tripod – Keeping it all steady

Tripods are used in most photo shoots, but they are a “must
have” in astrophotography. Because we’re taking pictures
that can last 30 seconds or more for each snap, the
slightest movement will blur and ruin the image.

There’s no hard and fast rule here, just some things to take
into account when selecting a tripod.

Do you plan on taking it with you on a night time

capture session? If so then something a little more
 portable and lightweight might be in order.
Are you planning on using a telescope in the future for
your deep space nebula images? Then look at
something that is certainly sturdy enough and can
handle the weight of a telescope and all the extra
accessories that get attached to it.

Handy Astrophotography Gear To Have

The following items are not necessarily essential for you to

capture your night sky images; the core items have all been
discussed above (camera, lens & telescope).

But each one below is useful enough that I thought they

were worth mentioning and adding them to the
astrophotography gear list.

Camera Filters For Astrophotography

Camera filters will help improve your images during a night

photo shoot. There are quite a few different types of filters
which all do a different job. For example, the most common
use is a filter to offset the light pollution from the city light
glow. If you live in the red zone (DarkSiteFinder.com), then it
will be quite a challenge to try and capture any long
exposure.

As far as installing them, if you get the clip in style, they clip
in-between your DSLR astrophotography camera sensor
and your lens, so they are a reasonably straightforward and
easy install.

Some other various types of filters are:

CLS: City Light Suppression

LPS: Light Pollution Suppression
Narrowband Filters
Line Filters
Color Filters
Solar Filters

tracking mount
If your planning on capturing any deep space imagery, then
a mount is regarded as the essential piece of equipment for
astrophotography.

Deep sky images require long exposure times for a single

image, which allows the camera to capture all the rich and
details from the faraway galaxies. Because of the constant
rotation of the earth, on a stationary tripod, you will get
blurring and streaking because of the rotation.

This is where a tracking mount for astrophotography

becomes invaluable. The mount can be set to be polar
aligned to move in exact sync with the earth rotation, which
makes the image seem “frozen,” so you can photograph
them without any worry of image blur.

Remote Shutter Release

Even the slightest movement can ruin an image and cause

image-blur, a remote helps eliminate any chance of
accidental camera shake when taking a photo.

Flashlight or headlamp

Once the sun sets and you’re ready to start your

astrophotography, you’ll need a light of some sort to be able
to see what you’re doing.
A red flashlight is recommended for astrophotography. They
create a red light for you to see at night, but most
importantly allowing your pupils to stay adjusted to the dark.

Extra Batteries

The last thing you want is to be midway through a photo

shoot and your batteries to go flat. Because of the nature of
astrophotography, you will end up taking lots of images of
the night sky. Handy tips: the cooler night temperatures will
drain your batteries quicker than usual, so another reason to
have a few extra batteries handy.

Laptop for Imaging

When getting into deep sky astrophotography, you’ll need
more dedicated camera equipment to capture your images.
CCD or CMOS cameras need a computer to control them in
use and to get the pictures it takes. Nothing high spec is
necessary here, usually, if you have an old laptop lying
around it will be sufficient.

Once connected, some of the on-the-fly adjustments you

can make are,

Manage the frame and focus of your image

Automatically adjusting the exposures
Adjusting the autoguiding camera
Able to Test different exposure lengths and ISO
settings

Dew heaters

As the temperature starts to drop, moisture and

condensation can begin to form on your telescope. This can
obstruct the image and cause “blurring” during a photo
shoot.

The solution is to use a dew heater; it is a heated velcro

strap which keeps warm enough to keep your telescope dry
and moisture free. Similar to what a demister does in your
car window.
telescope eyepieces

A telescope won’t work without an eyepiece. When you get

your first telescope, it will generally come with a stock
eyepiece.

As you progress on your astro journey, you may want to

upgrade your telescope eyepiece, just like a camera lens,
they change the telescope’s magnification.

Astrophotography Camera Settings

This is the part where many beginners start to feel

overwhelmed. I know the feeling all too well because that’s
how I felt when I first started in deep sky imaging. All this
talk of focal length, ISO and aperture made my head spin.
The learning curve isn’t as steep as it initially seems though.

With a little perseverance and some help from this guide,

you’ll have everything you need to be able to produce night
sky images in no time at all.

Focusing at Night

Focusing at night can be a little challenging at first,

especially for amateurs, because it is so dark the lens
struggles to lock-on and focus on a target.

The solution here is to always use manual focus for

astrophotography. You don’t want to have your camera on
auto trying to refocus during a long exposure shot.

Below are some essential points when it comes to focusing

at the night sky.

Manual Focus

Set your camera to manual mode (this is a must). Also, your

lens needs to be set to manual mode too.

Infinity

Adjust your lens focus and bring it to infinity (most lenses

have an infinity symbol). Infinity focus is usually a good
starting point for capturing the starts with a wide angle lens.

If Still Out Of Focus

If the stars look a little out of focus, make a slight

adjustment to just before infinity. You’ll need to test this a
little to find the sweet post for your camera lens.

Also, and often overlooked, is your lens may have just

fogged up if outside temperatures are cold. Shine a light on
your lens to check, and if it has, a quick wipe with a
microfibre cloth will clear it up.

Use Live View

Using your cameras live view eliminates a bit of the

guesswork; it allows you to check your images and focus
instantly. Much easier than trying to use the viewfinder.

Focus on the stars

Point your camera towards the brightest star in the sky and
make sure it is visible on your live view display.

At this point, you will most likely still need to adjust your
focus slightly. Magnify the image (by 5X-10X) to make it
easier to close in on the star image and see how focused
you are.

Adjust your lenses focus ring in and out until the star is as
small and as sharp as possible.

If while zoomed in on live view you see a blue or red hue

around the edge of the stars (chromatic aberration), your
view is still slightly over or under-focused. You will know
when you get it right because the star will be sharp and
have very little blue or red hue around the stars.

Focus on the trees

If your trying your hand at capturing landscape

astrophotography, trying to focus on the trees or other
foreground objects can sometimes be a little tricky.

​A technique on getting the focus on point relatively

quickly is to shine your flashlight or headlamp at the
top of the trees. This helps the camera focus on the
foreground objects easier.

How to set the aperture, shutter speed & ISO?

In astrophotography, our only objective is to capture night

sky images; the only difficulty is the objects were trying to
capture in the night sky are usually very faintly lit.

So to capture very faint objects, we need to set our camera

settings to allow as much light as possible. There are three
main camera settings that we need to look at that will affect
the light intake for our images. Below we go into detail about
aperture, shutter speed, and ISO. All three work together
and counterbalance each other.
Aperture

First one is aperture (or diaphragm), for those that don’t

quite know what aperture does exactly (no shame here, I
had no idea when I first started), to put it simply it is the
adjustable sized hole in your camera lens which lets in the
light.

The lower the aperture number, the larger the hole size
becomes, meaning you allow more light to enter the sensor.
The larger the aperture number, the smaller the lens hole
becomes, and you guessed it, less light is allowed in
through the lens onto the sensor.

Aperture size can be set in several variations, numbers like

f/1.4, f/1.8, f/2.8, f/4, f/5.6, and f/8 are usually seen on a lens.

Just remember when capturing night images, we need as

much light as possible to enter, so a recommended aperture
setting is setting your lens to your lowest number available
for your lens to allow the hole to be as big as possible.

Shutter Speed

Second is shutter speed; this adjusts the time the camera

shutter stays open and allows the light to hit the digital
sensor. Again, if we set the shutter to remain open longer,
we will enable the camera to record more light into our
image.

Shutter speeds usually start from breakneck speeds

(1/1,000th of a second) to 20-30 seconds or more. Another
option is to set your camera to “Bulb” mode, this allows
your shutter to stay open for as long as you hold down the
shutter button.

So if we need more light to enter our image, why can’t we

leave the shutter open for much longer? I get asked that
quite often, but the answer is quite simple.

We have to take into account the earth’s constant rotation,

while not noticeable to the human eye, it’s still there.
Because we’re trying to capture fixed objects in the sky and
we’re located on a rotating surface (earth), if we leave the
shutter open too long the earth’s rotation will make our
images looked blurred or smudged when the shutter is left
open for much longer than 30 seconds.

​Note: Star trails is a sub-form of astrophotography

and can be the actual desired effect if that is the
case then leaving your shutter open for much longer
is the way to go to capture the star trail effect.

Thirty seconds is just an approximate number to avoid star

trails (blurred objects), luckily there is a reasonably accurate
way to calculate how long you can leave your shutter open
before you get any unwanted image streaking. The
technique is called the 500 rule; below, I’ll explain how it
works.
What is the 500 rule in photography?

The 500 rule is a mathematical formula to calculate the

longest possible exposure (shutter speed) you can use to
make sure your night sky objects a still pin sharp, and you
avoid the trailing effect.

To work out, you lenses shutter limits you need to use the
500 rule and divide it by your lenses focal length, thus
giving you the shutter speed number that you can use
before you start to see star trails in your images.

500 / (Focal Length) = Shutter speed time (in seconds)

before you see star trails in your photographs.

Let’s use a Rokinon 14mm f/2.8 lens on a full-frame DSLR

camera for an example. You divide 500 by 14 (14mm Focal
Length), which equals 35.71 seconds. Round it down a little
and 35 seconds is the shutter speed (exposure) you should
use to help avoid the possibility of any star trails.

Now if you’re using a camera with a “cropped sensor,” you

need to get your focal length and times it by 1.5. So a 14mm
Focal length x 1.5 equals 21. Now 21 becomes the focal
length you use in the 500 equation.

Full Frame Sensor: 500 / 14 = 35 seconds

Cropped Sensor: 500 / (14 x 1.5 = 21) = 23 seconds

What is the best ISO for astrophotography?

Another setting that affects the sensitivity of the image

quality is the ISO setting. While we can’t physically change
the sensitivity, the ISO setting can be changed, which in
simple terms is a multiplying factor.

ISO ranges do vary depending on the camera but can have

the range of anywhere from very low sensitivity (100) up to
very high sensitivity (12,800) in high-end cameras.

The higher we set the ISO setting, the brighter the image
will be that we capture. The offset to this is the higher we go
in ISO range, the more noise and grain we add to the
picture.

A recommended starting ISO range is usually between 800

– 1600. If the image is still too dark, then adjust the ISO up
to 3200.

Shoot In RAW mode

So why shoot in RAW instead of JPEG?, in most types of

photography it is recommended to shoot in RAW format to
preserve as much data and detail in the picture.

Astrophotography is no exception, as we try and capture

the minimal amount of light in the night sky by pushing our
camera settings to the limits.
We need to preserve and keep as much of the data
uncompromised inside the image because later we will be
importing that image into a photo editing software (like
photoshop). You’ll need those high dynamic ranges when
editing.

So as a general rule of thumb, always shoot in RAW mode.

Quick Start Camera Settings

Ok, so we’ve discussed all the main camera settings in

detail so far. But what if you’ve just come across this blog
post and you want the quick answer?

I hear you, so below are my recommended quick star

settings to get you up and running in the shortest amount of
time.

Note: these settings are to get you started; every camera

and lens combination is slightly different. Thus the required
settings will change ever so slightly. Take a few test images
with the settings below and then adjust one setting at a time
till your happy with the results. The settings you should be
looking at to change are aperture, shutter speed, and ISO.

Recommended camera settings

Set camera file type to Raw format.

Set camera to manual mode
Set camera lens focus to infinity (or close to it)
Set Aperture to lowest possible setting
Set shutter speed to 25 seconds (use the 500 rule
to adjust for your lens)
Set ISO to 1600
Set White Balance to Auto (can try Daylight or
Sunny as an alternative)
Set the camera’s self-timer to 10 seconds
(eliminates shaking)

Editing the images

Note: this is a quick beginner post production section about
photoshop when it comes to post-production software and
to edit the photos, this topic deserves a whole dedicated
tutorial and guide just on its own.

You can get into some advanced techniques to improve

your images, but to stay on topic for this beginner theme, I’ll
keep it short and to the point.
The first part of astrophotography is taking the pictures; the
second part is the editing (post-production). The more time
you take in the first part (getting cleaner images), the easier
the post-production part will be.

While you can process your images with a multitude of

different image editing software, I’ll be talking about
photoshop as that is what I usually use.

Although that isn’t to say that the other alternatives are not
as good, software like Gimp, Lightroom and many others are
more than capable of doing the job. Just depends on which
program you feel most comfortable with.

What Software to use for astro image editing?

As I mentioned above, there are quite a few choices when it

comes to editing your astro images. Below are just a few
that you can have a look at and see which you feel
comfortable with. I’ve listed both free and paid choices.
Free Software

Deep Sky Stacker

RegiStax
Gimp

Paid Software

PixInsight
Star Tools
Adobe Lightroom
Adobe Photoshop

Stacking your images

Hopefully, you have taken multiple photos of the same

object, this way we can layer them over each other to
smooth out the noise from the photos, also known as
stacking.

Many ways to do this but a free way to do this is to use the

software Deep Sky Tracker, it does just one job but does it
well. Only using the default settings will work well.

Cleaning Up and finishing your image

Once you finished with Deep Sky Tracker, the final image
you export from it will be a large TIF file.
You then import the TIF file into photoshop, and now this is
where we start to edit and try and bring out the deep night
sky colors from the image.

Remember we’re using TIFF format because it is an

uncompressed format, so no data loss. Whereas JPEG is a
lossy compressed format, meaning you lose too much date
from within the image. You may not notice any difference to
the naked eye, but once within photoshop, you will see the
JPEG data loss.

Here is a short description on astrophotography RGB

histogram, this shows (and explains) the histogram we want
to see from an uncompressed file image.

Don’t be disheartened if the image you just imported looks

a little dark or has minimal color; it’s all there we need a few
tweaks to start to bring them out.

To bring out the deep colors from your image, you’ll need to
edit the curves and levels with photoshop. Below is a quick
example of how it can be quickly done in just over 10
minutes.

Conclusion
With a little trial and error, it won’t be long before you start
capturing some amazing night sky images. The beauty of
astrophotography is there are so many objects you can
capture; there is a whole universe to explore.

By now, you should have a much more definite idea of how a

beginner should get started in astrophotography. Hopefully,
you’re just as excited as I was when I first learned what I
need to do because this is where the fun begins :).

So get out there and capture some great images. If you do,
feel free to submit them here to nightskypix, I always love
showcasing what people have been able to capture from
around the world.