Current Events > I'm interested in getting into astrophotography.

(+) Yeah! (+)

Ive been doing a lot of research. I think itll be so much fun, but its complicated with all the equipment and time needed. Im kinda excited.

I know nothing about it except that I see pictures in a subreddit I follow and sometimes they look cool. It seems complicated. I dont understand how the computer is used to like put pictures together or whatever.

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Again Im only just getting started with learning about it, but my basic understanding is they use special telescope setups with cameras and take extended exposures. The telescope setup can follow the object of interest for several minutes to hours. The longer the exposure, the more detailed of an image that can be obtained. After the exposure is complete, the images have to be processed to get the images youve likely seen.

Just aim up, take one pic, and bam you hit like a trillion interesting celestial bodies and entities

Unless this is something different

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Smackems posted...

Just aim up, take one pic, and bam you hit like a trillion interesting celestial bodies and entities

Unless this is something different

Very different. Its not as simple as that.

BroodRyu posted...

Very different. Its not as simple as that.

Is it cosmology related though

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Space isnt real, wake up

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a few weeks ago i tried taking pictures of the eclipse with my phone and lol

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ledbowman posted...

a few weeks ago i tried taking pictures of the eclipse with my phone and lol

How did that turn out?

I do a lot of astrophotography, but not with telescopes. I do have one of these that I attach my cameras to, to do extra long exposures of the milky way:
https://www.amazon.com/iOptron-SkyGuider-Camera-Mount-Package/dp/B07199QMR6

Getting the right equipment and attaching my camera to a telescope is something I've researched. I've only ever used the phone mount with my son's beginner telescope to get photos of the moon. It worked really well.

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Was it challenging learning how to do that? How challenging is image processing?

BroodRyu posted...

How did that turn out?

as someone else who also tried to take pictures of the eclipse, not particularly well I suspect

I took one before the eclipse, one partway, and one at the peak, and if you flip between them you can definitely tell it's different but none of the 3 pictures look particularly good at all

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BroodRyu posted...

How did that turn out?

kind of blurry and scattered looking like an impressionist painting. the moon was more a hexagon than a circle

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BroodRyu posted...

Was it challenging learning how to do that? How challenging is image processing?

Not at all. I found that's it's easier than any other type of photography. Taking photos of the night sky is very simple once you learn how to focus manually in the dark. Using a polar mount and getting it aligned took about 30 minutes the first time, now it takes minutes. I've found that astrophotography gets easier and quicker every time you go out and try.

Editing is pretty straightforward and easy for the types of night sky shots I take. I just use Lightroom to make adjustment, and export to Photoshop for more advanced things like panoramas or blending multiple exposures.

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