night sky example with astrophotographyAstrophotography is the art and science of creating photographs of the sky objects including stars, planets and galaxies. The technology has improved so much that you can take pictures with your own DSLR camera and a decent mount.

There are products on the market that can track the star movements making it easy to capture pictures.

Astrophotography Websites

Here are recommended websites that deal with astrophotography:

If you know of other astrophotography resources please let us know

Astrophotography Techniques

To take pictures of the stars and galaxies all you really need is a decent SLR camera where you can control the shutter speed - this is because you need to capture as much light as possible.

Much of your picture quality is going to be down to trial and error as you'll need to play around with the focus as well.

You'll also need a tripod or something that ensures your camera doesn't move during exposure. Start taking pictures at shutter speeds of 2, 4, 10, 15, 30 seconds and see what you get.

Of course in cities there's going to be a lot of light pollution so try and get out into the country where there are less street and office lighting.

Popular Astrophotography Cameras

Almost any DSLR or SLR digital camera is sufficient at taking good pictures and all the main manufacturers such as Canon and Nikon provide digital cameras for you to undertake good photography. You used to need a telescope to add to your camera but these days there are better methods to capture the stars.

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