What You Need For Deep Sky Astrophotography (Step-by-Step Walkthrough)

depending on who you ask my backyard could be considered small cramped and definitely light polluted I mean I'm smack dab in the center of town we've got street lights to deal with neighbors wondering what the heck I'm doing and my backyard skies are far from ideal for astrophotography a class 8 on the moral scale that's really really bad so why wouldn't I just capture my images from a remote observatory I could leverage the power of the modern-day Internet and connect to a 25,000 dollar telescope on their clear desert skies a few clicks of the mouse and I'm capturing data from the comfort of my computer chair that's way better than imaging here and my little light bullet in backyard yeah right [Music] [Music] in this video I'll break down every piece of gear I use step by step for a night of deep sky imaging here in the backyard I'll explain how I use it to capture insanely beautiful images of objects in space from this little piece of paradise I call my backyard I'll be setting up from scratch covering each piece of equipment what it does in how I use it to capture images of space this way you can replicate the process to take your own images if you're so inclined I'll warn you right now this is by no means the right way to go about deep sky Astro photography it's just the way I do it first things first if you're brand new to deep sky Astro photography here's the deal I use an equatorial tracking mount to compensate for the rotation of the earth because the night sky slowly moves throughout the night you need to freeze it in place in order to take a long exposure photo a long exposure image of say a minute or more will capture much more detail in color than your eye ever could this data is collected by the camera sensor and then it can be processed to pull out even more detail and more color I use a telescope like a camera lens because it gives me the focal length and the aperture needed to get up close and reveal the fine details of some deep sky objects in space deep sky Astro photography is all about collecting as much light as possible it needs to be sharp well exposed and well framed with good data it's a lot of fun to do the next stage which is post-processing you finally get to see the results of your efforts outside for now let's just focus on setting everything up properly to capture the best images of our target possible there are links in the description for every piece of gear I use in this video we need to power the equipment so I'll run an extension cord or two out to my imaging location many people use a portable battery pack to power their gear and so why when I don't have access to electricity I bought one of those car starter battery booster packs for convenience but they don't last long and they're overpriced the telescope mount sits on a tripod or in this case a tribe here a rock solid base for the tracking head of the mount is essential it should be level and secure many people build a custom concrete pier and fasten their tracking mount to it no matter what size of tripod you use for astrophotography make sure that it won't slip or shift throughout the night most mounts have a built-in level which comes in really handy I adjust the legs of the tribe here until the mount head is as level as possible the mount I currently use is an I opt Ron CEM 60 it's a center balanced equatorial mount that uses a magnetic gear system the mount lets me move the telescope in two axes and lets me point to any deep sky object I want in the sky as long as it's not obstructed by houses or trees once it's on the object it will track it and keep it completely still so I can photograph it this is a go-to mount meaning I can punch in the target name and it will slough to it for me what an age we live in polar alignment is absolutely crucial for a successful image it may seem difficult to achieve at first but it's really not that complicated the reason I mention it at this stage is because we'll need to roughly have the mount polar aligned when I first set it up meaning the counterweight shaft should be roughly pointing towards north because I'm in the northern hemisphere I'll use Polaris the North Star as a guide to properly pull our alignment mode if you live in the southern hemisphere or can't see Polaris there are alternative ways to polar align software assisted methods such as drift align can help I've used a polar alignment routine in a software called sharp cat before and that worked extremely well the way I do it is to use a simple app on my smartphone called polar finder it tells me exactly where Polaris needs to be in my polar finder scope on the mount from my exact location it uses my GPS coordinates and places the star in the correct position for my exact location in current time it's just a matter of matching up what the app tells me in the polar finder scope on the mountain to match it up you use the altar as adjustment bolts on the mount to actually move the mount head around you're not moving the telescope but the mount itself the entire process only takes about two minutes once you get used to it if you're not interested in doing this manual process or you can't see Polaris you should probably check out the pull master now that I'm pulling aligned we can get to the fun part mounting the telescope along with being polar aligned balanced is a major factor to consider when setting up your rig the mount includes a counterweight which I'll use to balance this 20-pound refractor telescope you need to balance the telescope in both axes so that the mount doesn't have to work any harder than it needs to when slowing and tracking objects in the night sky the telescope I'll be using tonight is the William optics fluoro star 1/32 triplet a bold chromatic refractor this particular telescope has a focal length of 925 millimeters and an F ratio of f7 a telescope like this has enough aperture to pull in some serious light and get an up-close look at some of the most impressive deep sky nebulae we need to attach the imaging payload the camera to the telescope before balancing we also need to include the auto guiding scope for an accurate overall weight to balance I'll explain each of these items in a minute but either way this is the payload that we'll need to be tracking smoothly while the photos are being taken even the distance the focuser is from the tube will make a difference in the balance so there may be some trial and error here if I ever get around to writing my astrophotography how-to book it will be called trial and error my painfully humbling journey into astrophotography by Trevor Jones there have never been so many great options for controlling your camera or mount remotely than there are now dedicated astrophotography computers many PCs and good old-fashioned laptops I've been using the same laptop since I started taking images of space back in 2011 this computer is used only for astrophotography and has spent more nights outside than any other laptop on earth I'm serious every clear night since 2011 this computer has software installed for controlling the camera the mount and of course an internet connection I can remote into this laptop from in the house to check up on to see how things are doing now let's talk about the smaller telescope riding atop the big one this is called a guide scope and its job is to help them out track with even greater precision I'll attach a small camera to this telescope which will feed a looping image of stars to my computer then my computer will communicate with the mount and make small adjustments in periodic error for improved tracking accuracy it sends tiny guide pulses to the mount based on the tiny movements it reads from the guidance star this is called Auto guiding and it can be the difference between the ability to capture a 30-second exposure and a 10-minute exposure for the upcoming tasks of star alignment I'll use an eyepiece in this little telescope before attaching the camera it's a thirty two millimeter eyepiece that offers a wide field of view this is beneficial for the next step of my process with this mount I first need to set the zero position with both axes in the home position after that I'll begin a simple star alignment routine which calibrates the amount to have precise pointing accuracy this means when I punch in the deep sky object I want to image I can be sure that the telescope will land on it and put a dead center in the frame certain objects are extremely dim so it would be impossible to know if I have the telescope pointed on it without taking a series of test exposures this can take precious time away from imaging on a clear night so take the time to properly star align your mount first I personally don't mind this stage of the process because I honestly enjoy a little time actually looking through the telescope and getting some minor physical activity but I understand that there are those of you out there that are either tired of this process or have mobility issues for those folks use a plate solving software aid such as Astro tortilla it's free the manual process of star alignment involves finding three stars and centering them first in the guide scope and then through the primary imaging telescope since I'll be pointing out some of the brightest stars in the sky I like to perform my focus routine at the same time I'd like to use the live view image from the camera during star alignment to help center the stars rather than centering the starting eyepiece I'll jump into my camera capture software to make this process easier and more precise the software is called Astro photography tool apt for short a camera control software like this not only lets you automate the length of each image and the number of shots to take but they also include features to help with focus framing and much more a dedicated astronomy camera like the one I'll be using tonight does not include a display screen the way a DSLR does this means that running an additional software tool to control the camera is necessary to focus I use a tool a baton off mask that creates a star diffraction spike pattern on stars that are close to being focused during my three star alignment routine i roughly center the star in the wide field guide scope visually then I use the live view loop with the baton off mask to both center the star on the primary imaging scope and set my focus what you're aiming for is a centralized spike between the X with the star alignment and focus routine out of the way we can now slew to our deep sky target and start imaging certain targets are better choices than others depending on your imaging conditions moon phase camera sensor size telescope and filters etc over time you'll learn what your particular gear is best up and set yourself up for success whenever possible the camera I'm using tonight is known as a one shot color camera it houses a CMOS sensor that shoots images in broadband true color collecting light in RGB at the same time a monochrome camera is capable of collecting more signal or light at once but a filter wheel is needed to conveniently capture each color channel needed to produce a full color image this camera is called the z wo ASI 294 MC Pro that's a mouthful it includes a cooling feature that keeps the internal sensor cool during long exposures this is important because a hot sensor means more noise noise is the little pixels and artifacts that really mess up your image with a cold sensor you'll be able to create images with a much better signal-to-noise ratio from my city backyard filters are necessary to capture any sort of usable image if I want to shoot a true color image with this camera a light pollution filter will help ignore many of the wavelengths of light associated with things like street lights and porch lights and then extensive processing must be done to separate the deep sky object from the bright sky in post-processing it's the price we pay for being able to enjoy this incredible hobby from the comfort of our own backyard tonight I'll be shooting with a much stronger filter it will ignore all wavelengths of visible light except for two very narrow band passes the STC astro duo narrowband filter collects the light associated with hydrogen alpha and oxygen only for certain emission nebulae it can produce jaw-dropping images and even the heaviest of urban light pollution with everything balanced aligned and ready to go I can now hop into the camera control software to set up my imaging sequence the target I've chosen to shoot is the butterfly nebula in Cygnus it rises above my host by 10:00 p.m. and I'll track it along the sky until morning I'll need to perform a Meridian flip when the mount reaches the zenith which just means that the telescope needs to switch sides and start tracking again for narrowband images like the ones I'll be shooting tonight you'll want to use longer exposures than you would when shooting in color I'll tell the software to shoot 50 times six minute images to make sure that each one of these six minutes subs are sharp I'll turn on the auto guiding system for auto guiding I use a free software called PhD to guiding this tool runs my little guide camera the Altair GP cam 2 which houses a small mono sensor with one job to follow a single star all night long the software will communicate with the mount to make the small adjustments needed for improved tracking accuracy I can also leverage a feature called dithering which reduces overall noise in your stacked image by slightly shifting the position between each frame before capturing if you're brand new to astrophotography I hope you now have a better idea of the process involved and what it takes to take a successful image of an object in space it may seem like a lot to take in at once and that's because it is the good news is if you're passionate and dedicated all you'll need is small victories and improvements along the way to keep going and push forward I certainly didn't get to where I am today in a hurry why would I rush through something I absolutely love doing my final advice to you would be to be patient and enjoy every step of the way the night sky is not going anywhere and you have the rest of your life to enjoy it thank you for watching and please subscribe for more tips and tutorials on the greatest hobby on earth Astro photography [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music]

Channel: AstroBackyard

Views: 290,982

Keywords: deep sky astrophotography, how to, walkthrough, beginner, basics, what you need, camera and telescope, astrophotography, step-by-step, lesson, course, astrobackyard, photography, tutorial, astrophotography equipment

Id: fTtbVH-FX-o

Length: 18min 42sec (1122 seconds)

Published: Fri Jul 13 2018