All you need is a camera that can take exposures up to 30 seconds or one that has a night scene setting. Staying with the concept of not spending any money you can use your existing camera to take starscapes. 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. all that is required is that the camera can focus on the image in the eyepiece. Using this method of imaging can also be applied to compact cameras. This makes the process a lot more reliable and repeatable. ![]() The manufacturers have realised there is a market out there for this type of photography and have developed a number of attachments for telescopes that hold the camera firmly in the correct position. This method of astrophotography is called afocal imaging. A lot of these will not be very good, but with some practice you will improve. 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. Smartphones can take images through a telescope with an adapter, such as the Orion SteadyPix, that holds it over the eyepiece. 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. This of course means that you start with your existing camera. 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. People may laugh at this, but it is perfectly feasible. One way to get going in astrophotography is to try and use the imaging equipment that you have already without spending a penny. I will also cover more advanced astrophotography in another article discussing guiding and combining images to reduce noise and bring out more detail. Taking the picture is only part of the sequence to obtaining some stunning images.Ī later article will look at the software processes on your computer that will turn the output from your camera into a jaw dropping picture. This article will just focus (pun intended) on the equipment side for your introduction into astrophotography. 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. Astrophotography can range from taking starscapes with your existing camera at one end of the scale all the way up to using dedicated CCD cameras with filters on tracking mounts, and a whole wealth of options in between. 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. Credit: Mike Barrett / If you thought buying a telescope was confusing and complicated, then moving on to astrophotography can be even worse. ![]() A DSLR camera can be coupled with the iOptron SkyTracker to produce pretty good long exposure images. ![]() Performing astrophotography doesn’t require a telescope.
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