Astrophotography, also known as astronomical imaging, is the photography or imaging of astronomical objects, celestial events, or areas of the night sky.
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An easy to understand introduction to various sources of noise in astrophotography and how to eliminate them.
An introduction to auto-guiding.
ZWO has a diverse product line. This guide will help you make the right choice.
Some solid advice on cables in an astrophotography setup.
Another interactive guide by Bartosz Ciechanowski, this time about cameras and lenses. A **must-read** for anyone interested in telescopes and photography.
Understanding color models, spaces, perception, white point, intensity matches and mismatches (and more!) is crucial for astrophotographers. Bartosz Ciechanowski explains it all in this interactive guide.
A detailed comparison of the pre-processing features.
Accurate alignment in just a matter of minutes.
A great resource to help one identify and resolve flat-fielding issues.
Compares the two guiding options in details.
How focal reducers work, what types are there, and how to use them.
Mistakes that happen during the pre-processing stages cannot be corrected anymore in post-processing. This guide from Bernd Landmann acquaints fellow astrophotographers with PixInsight's tools needed for recognising and avoiding such mistakes.
An easy to follow guide on what back focus is and how to set it.
This interactive guide to light by Bartosz Ciechanowski, teaches about travel vectors, irradiance, radiance, angles, luminance, and more.
Successfully processing astronomical images entails a series of informed decisions. Understanding the data is crucial. This article provides a comprehensive guide to the Statistics process in PixInsight.
This blog series by Willem Jan Drijfhout will take you on a deep dive into the topic of flat frames ([Part 2: Flat Panels compared](https://www.astroworldcreations.com/blog/understanding-flats-part-2-flat-panels-compared), and [Part 3: Bias, Flat-Darks and Conclusions](https://www.astroworldcreations.com/blog/understanding-flats-part3-conclusions)).
What makes a top-tier telescope? This article will clear up some common misconceptions.
Choosing the right autoguiding equipment can be challenging. This guide will help with making the right decision.
Part of Jon Rista's Astrophotography Basics series, this article provides a great bit of theory around signals, noise and histograms.
The Sky-Watcher AZ-GTI mount was never meant for astrophotography. Oh, the irony!
One of the best explanations to CCD vs. CMOS camera sensors.
Guidance on how to reach the 55mm back focal length with ASI cameras.
If you're interested in night photography and particularly deepscapes, this guide hits the spot with it's succinctness.
An extensive collection of video lessons covering both the fundamental and advanced use of PixInsight.
A comprehensive step-by-step guide. Includes a follow-up videos on post-processing the images in different apps.
A lightning explanation of what a histogram is.
A detailed tutorial on how to plan, execute and post-process a deepscape of the Andromeda galaxy aligned with a mountain in Southern Colorado.
Annoying and hard to fix, tilt and spacing can ruin your imaging. This guide will help you eliminate them.
A video series that kicks off with a gentle introduction to filters and closes down comparing the most popular ones.
Newcomer friendly, down-to-earth and comprehensive video tutorials.
One of the more challenging issues in astrophotography. Charles Bracken, the author of “The Deep-Sky Imaging Primer”, has you covered.
Rig assembly on-site can be tedious. A more comfortable alternative is to assemble at home, then upon arrival at the imaging site, install on the mount.
This article details a simple and effective method to separate, process, and later reintroduce stars into an image without artifacts. It also discusses how to get more naturally looking stars from a narrowband dataset.
An extensive collection of tutorials covering both pre- and post-processing workflows.
A complete walk-through. From planning to post-processing.
Narrowband palettes such as SHO, HOO, etc. produce uncalibrated stars. One way to fix star color is to shoot also in RGB, then blend. In this article, Alberto Ibañez suggests another approach that uses the already acquired narrowband data to achieve the same.
On his blog, Willem Jan Drijfhout explains how to remove color artefacts from images captured with a One-Shot-Color camera.
Even though it's from year 2012, this video on stacking multiple imaging sessions is still relevant today.
Having some understanding of statistics is essential in astrophotography. Here, noted astrophotographer and scientist John Hayes teaches the basics.
On the hidden stories in astro-images and how to tell them. A truly inspirational message from famous astrophotographer Adam Block.
How long should a sub-exposure be? How much to cool? What gain to use? Dr. Robin Glover of SharpCap talks us through the science behind deep sky astrophotography using modern CMOS imaging sensors.
In this presentation, Tim Hutchison from The Astro Imaging Channel talks about the different types of signal and noise that are present in astronomical photos. How noise impacts photography and what we can do against it.
The Swiss army knife for your astro imaging sessions.
Cross-platform capture software for planetary, lunar, and solar imaging.
An advanced cross-platform (Windows, macOS, Linux) observatory control and automation tool.
Free and very powerful astrophotography imaging suite.
Open source, powerful, and easy to use astrophotography software.
The classic fully automated night sky imaging.
User-friendly system integration and astrophotography automation software.
A free guiding software that uses novel centroid methods to reduce the impact of seeing. It also offers comprehensive collimation support than can be of great help for f/4 and faster Newtonian/SCT systems.
Arguably THE guiding software. Free and open source.
Advanced and very powerful software for post-processing.
Planetary stacking software using alignment points for local motion correction.
An AI based deconvolution tool. Currently only available as a process module plug-in for PixInsight.
Registering, stacking, and simple post-processing.
Browser-based planetary stacker with no installation required.
Advanced image processing software platform. Very powerful but the user interface is intimidating.
Cross-platform planetary stacker with alignment point tracking and quality-weighted stacking.
Planetary image processing with wavelet sharpening and frame stacking.
Registering, stacking, and post-processing, specially tailored for noise reduction and improving the signal-to-noise ratio.
A simple program that allows the removal of the stars from astrophotography images.
Cross-platform and free sky charts.
Part of the free Ekos imaging suite, this cross-platform planetarium will help you image the sky.
Cross-platform and free planetarium with realistic 3D sky. It also has a [web-only alternative](https://stellarium-web.org/).
A beginner friendly list of objects to photograph with a DSLR camera.
A tools suite with various calculators, field of view simulation, star chart, etc.
A web application that assists in finding the optimal sub-exposure time. It takes into account the imaging setup, sky glow, etc.
A free and open source, self-hosted web application for astrophotography planning. Features both single and multi-user modes, making it suitable for individuals or entire astronomy clubs.
A photography planning mobile app (Android & iOS). It helps you plan your photos ahead of time so you’re always at the right place at the right time to capture the best photo possible.
A comprehensive web tool that helps astrophotographers plan their sessions using data from Gary Imm's renowned Deep Sky Compendium featuring over 3000 deep sky objects spanning 26 cross-referenced catalogues.
Real time Space Weather news and solar and geomagnetic activity data from various sources. All in one location for easy navigation. Indispensable for planning solar imaging sessions.
Free planning and image hosting for astrophotographers.
This website uses satellite data to show light pollution related content.
A web-based tool that helps astrophotographers decide between two imaging setups. It quantifies the real light-gathering and sampling trade-offs instead of relying solely on aperture or f-ratio.
Accurate, automated and repeatable focusing.
This online tool provides insight into the capabilities of a given imaging system. It computes key values such as plate scale, stellar full-width at half-maximum (FWHM), diffraction limit and presents a graph of the system's modulation transfer function (MTF). Very useful for evaluating the performance of a telescope and camera combination.
Desktop and command-line FITS workflow for detecting moving and transient objects in aligned astronomical image sequences, aimed at asteroid, comet, satellite, and transient detection.
Shoot nebulae, galaxies, and star clusters with Trevor Jones.
Let's talk astronomy and astrophotography! Tutorials, technical videos, and insights by Cuiv, The Lazy Geek.
With his pleasant and down-to-earth narrative, James teaches astrophotography one pixel at a time.
Experiments, comparisons, and processing with PixInsight. Lukomatico has it all.
Tutorials and reviews related to astrophotography by Nico Carver.
Everything N.I.N.A. Complete details with examples.
An inspiring map showing the parts of the sky that the community on Astrobin photographs the most (or least).
A list of Canon EOS models with useful reference information such as sensor and pixel size, quantum efficiency, shutter life, etc.
A database holding sensor characteristics for a plethora of digital cameras.
CloudyNights forum member Jim Thompson tests and compares a large selection of IDAS brand filters. ([cached version](assets/docs/idas-test-report.pdf))
A method for lighting the landscape for night-scape photography. This is its official site.
All objects from the Messier catalogue with lots of background information and images.
A list of Nikon models with useful reference information such as sensor and pixel size, quantum efficiency, shutter life, etc.
This survey aims to catalog faint nebulae that have not been previously documented.
This tool allows you to upload black and white source images (filtered eg. Ha, Sii, Oiii or R, G, B), then shows every possible permutation for the various combinations/palettes.
Interactive charts with sensor data contributed by people around the world.
An extensive collection of workflow diagrams for image processing in PixInsight. It covers both one-shot and monochrome cameras. A great resource for beginners and advanced users alike.
A growing list of equipment reviews. The experiences and results may prove useful for those looking at new gear.
Images of all objects from the Sharpless catalogue each with capture and background information.
A simplified tool to help astrophotographers easily find targets on any night of the year.
Custom built remote observatories with hosting options.
Multi pier remote observatory with reasonable rates for the whole world to use. It offers hourly, syndicates & hosting piers for those who prefer to use their own equipment.
Online access to a global network of 10 robotic telescopes with an ever-increasing image archive.
Social image hosting dedicated to astrophotography.
Arguably the largest community forums.
Small but active UK community forums.