I forgot to mention focusing, which can be challenging at night. You can either use a bahtinov mask (see my video about them) or use the live view and zoom on your camera to achieve the best focus. Also, to eliminate camera wobble, use the timer on your camera or use a remote shutter release cable.
A music stand works great for aiming a smart phone at a targets in the night sky. Point the music stand at the target. Set the delayed snap timer on the smart phone. Snap the pic and as the delayed timer counts down, set the smart phone down on the music stand, facing the night sky target. Works great.
Once again Nick, thank you for a very educational video. I finally got all my equipment that I ordered from FLO. Similar to yourself, I have the ED 72, a Canon 600D, dew-shield heater strap, RDF and the SA pro all mounted on the Skywatcher 3/4” inch tripod. All very stable. I’ve managed 45 sec exposures so far with pin point stars. The clouds have stopped me trying anything longer. Stacking and post processing has been a steep learning curve but with the help of yourself and others I’m making progress and loving it!
I'm British but live in Florida now. We get virtually zero rain in winter here so putting a kit together to get some images this year. Very useful info thanks!
Got a renewed interest in astronomy recently. Always wanted to learn how to take photos. A: Your video tutorials are great 👍 B: Finding them could cost me a chunk of money 😄. Great stuff, keep them coming.
@@AstroExploring Ha, I can imagine. Always some other piece of kit you absolutely need. Just started working my way through your videos. Sure I'll have some stupid questions for you over the coming months .👍
Yeah that’s a great point Stuart. I also forgot to mention remote shutter releases or using the timer on the camera to ensure a sturdy shot! I’ll pin a comment. Thanks Stuart!
Hi Nick. I'm firmly in the "just started this hobby" club, so your video was a good guide. My equipment thus far is my Lumix G9 and either the Panasonic-Leica 12-60 f/2.8-4 or Panasonic-Leica 50-200 f/2.8-4 depending on the field of view I want, all sitting on a Manfrotto tripod. You mentioned star trackers. Given that I have the camera, lens and tripod, would a tracker like the Star Adventurer be a good next step to take? For example, with my current setup, I was able to image Andromeda; however, I did so by taking and stacking nearly 1000 light frames. I took so many frames because I was limited to an exposure length of about 2 seconds. Even so, there's still a considerable amount of noise in the final resulting image. I imagine I'd get a far better signal to noise ratio if I could lengthen my exposure times per sub frame. I assume the longer exposure times would also allow me to stop down a bit to increase the sharpness of the stars as well as potentially lower the ISO to get even less sensor noise in each frame. I figure once I've got a tracker, then maybe I'd look at a small refractor. Of course, then I'd have to buy a larger mount, which would mean a guide scope, which would lead to dedicated astro cameras for the scopes, which would then mean specialized filters... So. That was a very long bit of rambling on my part. Now I'm hoping to have a few clear nights since the new moon is next weekend. I really want to try my hand at Orion. Any tips? Thanks again!
Hi Jonny. A star tracker is definitely the next step to take for you. This will allow for longer exposure (around 2 minutes). I hope to have the star tracker video out in 2 weeks which will explain all about them but for now I already have some Star Adventurer videos if you wanted to check them out 🙂
Also, for Orion there aren’t many tips I’d give you with the kit you have. Make sure not to over expose as the core is very bright, if you have a wide enough field of view you should be able to frame up the Horsehead and Flame nebulae too, along with the stars in Orion’s Belt. It’s an amazing area of the sky to image!
Hi Nick. I very much enjoyed this video and I must say I'm into Smartphone Astrophotography and getting great results. I just bought Hauwei p20pro smartphone and it's better than Hauwei p20 for astrophotography and with these phones you can do beautiful star trials which look great. Bortle 6 skies I live in but I still get good results as lately i got a nice shot of Mars. With dslr I I had good shots with bortle 6. This is what I'm planning to do all my astrophotography in the highlands of Scotland because many very dark locations there. I know a good spot in the Cairngorms national park as it's pretty dark and even out side fort william. It's all about finding dark sky locations here in scotland and the highlands are perfect. You ever been to bortle 1 skies where it's so dark? I've been few times and the night sky is so clear and so many stars. Sadly I've not tested Pixel 4 smartphone under dark skies due to Coronavirus! Hopefully next year will be a better year for us all!!!!
I haven’t been to Bortle 1 sites but I have been to the Haleakala summit in Hawaii. 10,000ft high where they have some telescopes. When you’re above a third of the atmosphere the views are spectacular 😍
Hi mate, I started astrophotography with my Canon 2000d and my 90-300 lens. Last night I used the Nebula Photo chain technique to take Andromeda, so about 1500 2 second photos, which I will stack. I wanted to know if it was possible with this same technique to take Soul Nebula, Orion ect? I'm going to invest around Christmas in an equatorial mount, which is the cheapest (if possible Go To)? Thank you very much for your very interesting videos, have a nice day!
The Orion nebula should work as that's a bright target but the Soul nebula really needs long exposures to bring it out as it's quite a faint target. If you want a goto mount then a good place to start would be to look on forums to see if anyone is selling one second hand (I got my HEQ5 that way). If buying new then most people seem to be opting for the Sky-Watcher EQ6-R at the moment. Depends on your budget 🙂
Ok, I'm in bortle 9. T7i , Astro mod (IR) cut filter removed I have an Astronomic HA clip in filter. Also guider. How long can I expose for in this horrible light pollution?
If you have a remote shutter release, then there is no reason to not have a tripod. With a remote release or intervalometer you can then get away with the flimsiest of tripods. I routinely see them at thrift stores for 10 dollars.
... 🤔... The little guy in the background (shelf) says "Canadian" but the accent obviously says otherwise... did you visit Canada? Montreal? Toronto? Quebec city? Ottawa? Vancouver? 🙄
@@AstroExploring Great, I hope you enjoyed visiting Canada 🍁 ... Sorry, I got sidetracked when I saw that on your shelf. I actually intended to thank you for this informative video👍🏻☺👍🏻 📷🔭🌟
I forgot to mention focusing, which can be challenging at night. You can either use a bahtinov mask (see my video about them) or use the live view and zoom on your camera to achieve the best focus. Also, to eliminate camera wobble, use the timer on your camera or use a remote shutter release cable.
A music stand works great for aiming a smart phone at a targets in the night sky. Point the music stand at the target. Set the delayed snap timer on the smart phone. Snap the pic and as the delayed timer counts down, set the smart phone down on the music stand, facing the night sky target. Works great.
Great beginner video!
Once again Nick, thank you for a very educational video. I finally got all my equipment that I ordered from FLO. Similar to yourself, I have the ED 72, a Canon 600D, dew-shield heater strap, RDF and the SA pro all mounted on the Skywatcher 3/4” inch tripod. All very stable. I’ve managed 45 sec exposures so far with pin point stars. The clouds have stopped me trying anything longer. Stacking and post processing has been a steep learning curve but with the help of yourself and others I’m making progress and loving it!
Great setup you’ve got there Ian! You’ll soon be pushing those exposure times up 👍🏻
Good clear and precise.. Information *
I'm British but live in Florida now. We get virtually zero rain in winter here so putting a kit together to get some images this year. Very useful info thanks!
This is the video I need! Thanks very much.
Got a renewed interest in astronomy recently. Always wanted to learn how to take photos.
A: Your video tutorials are great 👍
B: Finding them could cost me a chunk of money 😄.
Great stuff, keep them coming.
You need an endless pot of money for this hobby 😃
@@AstroExploring Ha, I can imagine. Always some other piece of kit you absolutely need.
Just started working my way through your videos. Sure I'll have some stupid questions for you over the coming months .👍
Great video,Thankyou.J
Helpfull, thx
Thankyou for your video. Id spent an hour working out that exposure time = shutter speed in my dslr ui :(
Fantastic video Nick, just one point you needed to cover would be how to focus the lens without a bahtinov mask. Otherwise spot on!
Yeah that’s a great point Stuart. I also forgot to mention remote shutter releases or using the timer on the camera to ensure a sturdy shot! I’ll pin a comment. Thanks Stuart!
Im 16 and working my butt off for an astrograph 10 and a skywatcher mount that will support it which is like 2k usd!
Hi Nick. I'm firmly in the "just started this hobby" club, so your video was a good guide. My equipment thus far is my Lumix G9 and either the Panasonic-Leica 12-60 f/2.8-4 or Panasonic-Leica 50-200 f/2.8-4 depending on the field of view I want, all sitting on a Manfrotto tripod. You mentioned star trackers. Given that I have the camera, lens and tripod, would a tracker like the Star Adventurer be a good next step to take? For example, with my current setup, I was able to image Andromeda; however, I did so by taking and stacking nearly 1000 light frames. I took so many frames because I was limited to an exposure length of about 2 seconds. Even so, there's still a considerable amount of noise in the final resulting image. I imagine I'd get a far better signal to noise ratio if I could lengthen my exposure times per sub frame. I assume the longer exposure times would also allow me to stop down a bit to increase the sharpness of the stars as well as potentially lower the ISO to get even less sensor noise in each frame. I figure once I've got a tracker, then maybe I'd look at a small refractor. Of course, then I'd have to buy a larger mount, which would mean a guide scope, which would lead to dedicated astro cameras for the scopes, which would then mean specialized filters...
So. That was a very long bit of rambling on my part. Now I'm hoping to have a few clear nights since the new moon is next weekend. I really want to try my hand at Orion. Any tips?
Thanks again!
Hi Jonny. A star tracker is definitely the next step to take for you. This will allow for longer exposure (around 2 minutes). I hope to have the star tracker video out in 2 weeks which will explain all about them but for now I already have some Star Adventurer videos if you wanted to check them out 🙂
Also, for Orion there aren’t many tips I’d give you with the kit you have. Make sure not to over expose as the core is very bright, if you have a wide enough field of view you should be able to frame up the Horsehead and Flame nebulae too, along with the stars in Orion’s Belt. It’s an amazing area of the sky to image!
Hi Nick. I very much enjoyed this video and I must say I'm into Smartphone Astrophotography and getting great results. I just bought Hauwei p20pro smartphone and it's better than Hauwei p20 for astrophotography and with these phones you can do beautiful star trials which look great. Bortle 6 skies I live in but I still get good results as lately i got a nice shot of Mars. With dslr I I had good shots with bortle 6. This is what I'm planning to do all my astrophotography in the highlands of Scotland because many very dark locations there. I know a good spot in the Cairngorms national park as it's pretty dark and even out side fort william. It's all about finding dark sky locations here in scotland and the highlands are perfect. You ever been to bortle 1 skies where it's so dark? I've been few times and the night sky is so clear and so many stars. Sadly I've not tested Pixel 4 smartphone under dark skies due to Coronavirus! Hopefully next year will be a better year for us all!!!!
I haven’t been to Bortle 1 sites but I have been to the Haleakala summit in Hawaii. 10,000ft high where they have some telescopes. When you’re above a third of the atmosphere the views are spectacular 😍
will you be covering how to find particular dso in the night sky by star hopping?
Yes I can include that after the star tracker video
Hi mate, I started astrophotography with my Canon 2000d and my 90-300 lens. Last night I used the Nebula Photo chain technique to take Andromeda, so about 1500 2 second photos, which I will stack. I wanted to know if it was possible with this same technique to take Soul Nebula, Orion ect? I'm going to invest around Christmas in an equatorial mount, which is the cheapest (if possible Go To)?
Thank you very much for your very interesting videos, have a nice day!
The Orion nebula should work as that's a bright target but the Soul nebula really needs long exposures to bring it out as it's quite a faint target. If you want a goto mount then a good place to start would be to look on forums to see if anyone is selling one second hand (I got my HEQ5 that way). If buying new then most people seem to be opting for the Sky-Watcher EQ6-R at the moment. Depends on your budget 🙂
@@AstroExploring Ok great, i’ll try that 😊. Have a good evening !
Turns out just when I started Astrophotography it started to get rainy and cloudy while we had mostly clear skies the whole year. Oh well.
That’s the astrophotographer’s curse, we all have it!
Can't decide if I like the Max headroom impersonations or not :):):)
I had to google that!
Do you feel very old now? I do.
@@Robert08010 Indeed I do, never watched the programme actually just saw the occasional preview :)
A question I️ have is
Does elevation above sea level matter for overall quality of the shot?
Yes it does. The higher you are, the less atmospheric distortion you get.
Ok, I'm in bortle 9. T7i , Astro mod (IR) cut filter removed I have an Astronomic HA clip in filter. Also guider. How long can I expose for in this horrible light pollution?
"Jew Heater" 😭
Thanks a lot man, I'm chasing astrophotography for my personal project in school. Your video helped a lot and I subbed to you 🫡
I’ve got a star adventure pro and just ordered the evo start 72ed for it so can’t wIt for video. On tracking
focal length? How to focus?
hi jonny bravo, its not really worth shooting a thousand 2 second frames. You need exposure time for detail, a tracker is the only way to go .
If you have a remote shutter release, then there is no reason to not have a tripod. With a remote release or intervalometer you can then get away with the flimsiest of tripods. I routinely see them at thrift stores for 10 dollars.
... 🤔... The little guy in the background (shelf) says "Canadian" but the accent obviously says otherwise... did you visit Canada? Montreal? Toronto? Quebec city? Ottawa? Vancouver? 🙄
I got it on a visit to Ottawa
@@AstroExploring Great, I hope you enjoyed visiting Canada 🍁 ... Sorry, I got sidetracked when I saw that on your shelf. I actually intended to thank you for this informative video👍🏻☺👍🏻 📷🔭🌟