Guidance for an Amazing Hobby
Patrick There are several types of telescope mounts in use today. They are variations of the two main types: equatorial mounts and altazimuth mounts. Either type can be computerized to point to and track an object, but they do it differently. Equatorial Mounts For astrophotography, the only real choice is the equatorial mount. This is because … Read more
Price $2949 (for 8 inch) Celestron is one of the largest producers of affordable telescopes for beginners and experts alike. The Celestron Nexstar Evolution HD is an advanced powerful telescope suitable for all astronomy enthusiasts. This scope comes in 3 aperture sizes: 6 inches, 8 inches, and 9.25 inches. The 8-inch version has a focal … Read more
Another in the line of excellent, affordable ZWO astronomical cameras is the ZWO ASI294MC Pro cooled color CMOS astrophotography camera. This camera boasts the Sony IMX294CJK sensor, with a 4144 x 2822 resolution with 4.63-micron pixels. This results in a diagonal measurement of 21.6mm, which is slightly smaller than an APS-C sensor found in many … Read more
While most of us assume astrophotography is a nighttime hobby, there is one object that is reliably visible during the daytime every day of the year as long as the sky is not entirely cloud-covered. You may have guessed this object is the sun. This is especially true in the summer when the sky cloud … Read more
The term magnification or “power” is often used to describe department store telescopes in order to oversimplify the “quality” of the scope. It makes it sound like a telescope with a magnification of 100x is more powerful, and therefore of higher quality, than one with 50x magnification. This is really far from the truth and … Read more
There are other objects to photograph other than galaxies and nebulae, also known as deep sky objects (DSO’s). Solar system objects including the planets, sun and moon are also favorite targets for astrophotographers, especially when you can tease out detail, such as the bands of Jupiter or rings of Saturn. Planetary imaging is not quite … Read more
What is Plate Solving? Plate solving is comparing an astronomical mage with a known database to determine the exact coordinates to which the telescope is pointing. Plate solving is done either with a local database on the users computer or by sending the image to an internet database. As accurate as the pointing is for … Read more
Summer in the Northern Hemisphere (June through September) is a great time for astrophotography since the nighttime sky is pointing directly into the heart of the Milky Way Galaxy. This part of the sky is rich in bright and colorful nebulae. This applies to both the Northern and Southern Hemisphere. Many of these objects are … Read more
Manufacturer: ZWO Introductory Price: $399 Have you been wanting to dip your toes into the fun hobby of astrophotography, but are intimidated by the complex equipment choices, high prices and steep learning curve? Well astronomy and imaging equipment manufacturer ZWO has come up with an innovative, reasonably priced way to produce some quality images that … Read more
What is signal-to-noise ratio and why is it important? The simplest definition would be the ratio of captured digital signal vs the captured noise acquired during the imaging process. In general, it is a measure of the quality of the image. Today’s digital cameras generate noise simply from the electronics inside the camera. Ideally, when … Read more