For a while now astrophotography has sparked an interest for me. A few years ago back in my home town I’d wander around country lanes trying to find somewhere far enough out of the way to get a good photo. I only brought my phone along — the idea to get a tripod didn’t even cross my mind! The built in astro setting on my phone did get some cool shots, but it was primarily designed for very wide-field projects (just the stars) with all the post-processing done for you.
While it was interesting using this basic setup to capture the sky, you can only get so far walking around with a phone late at night in the cold to end up with only wide-field shots. There’s so much more out there to capture! So to that end, I’ve been looking into what would be needed for a more interesting setup. I do have some experience with DSLR photography, but astro has a whole different set of considerations you need to make!
Below is a list of gear that’s essential for you to get started taking astro photos:
| Gear | What does it do? |
| Telescope | Points at the sky, and captures light from afar! |
| Camera | Transforms the light captured by the telescope into digital signals. |
| Tripod | Stabilises your gear to prevent wobble. |
| Mount | Aligns your equipment to track the same “frame” in the sky. A good mount is essential for taking good quality photos, considering that the earth rotates and you’re taking long exposures! |
| Filters | Stops unwanted light from being caught by the camera sensor. |
This is just scratching the surface — there’s so much variation on the above! You can get monochrome cameras with sensors that use different technology to capture light in greater detail, (rather than the traditional Bayer Filter Array) cameras with dedicated cooling that reduces thermal noise (false positives that trigger a pixel to mark a signal), filters that help reduce noise from the city, filters that help make the gasses nebulae emit look even brighter, and so much more!
It’s certainly not an inexpensive hobby, but it’s one I’d be interested in pursuing further. Maybe I’ll get some cool photos, who knows 🙂