Please Share your Astrophotography Shooting Setup and Experience

[SignifDigits]

This is one of two of these threads I'm starting. The other is macro.  I know there are great photographers here doing both, and yet I couldn't find a standalone thread on either topic.  I (and I assume others) would love to benefit from the wealth of knowledge on this topic on this site.  I'm sure there will be wide variations of opinion on some items.  I have the Move Shoot Move drive and accessories.   I have shot and stacked with my 70-200mm f/2.8 lens.  I have tried shooting with my 15-35 f/28 without great results.  I use the Vanguard Veo tripod.

I have used Canon Digital Photo Professional 4 (DPP4) to apply a recipe to all shots, converted to JPEG, then used Deep Sky Stacker to stack.  I turned off anything related to image stabilization, or auto color tuning, and set the white balance at 3000K.

I bought the Photo Pills software for planning purposes.

I haven't done that much astro work.  It seems fascinating, but I just haven't done that much yet.   

I'm prepping for the US east coast nearly whole lunar eclipse on the 27th of this month, and hope to use the tracker this time to slightly expand on full eclipse shutter speed.  I hope to experiment days before and after the new moon.

I'm curious not just what gear you astro gurus use, but how you decide upon a bit of sky to shoot, what features you call upon for your camera, and any of your hard-earned "lessons learned" as well as "tricks and tips".  And what sub-topics am I missing altogether?

I, and I assume others, would be very interested to learn more.   I would love other to share their stories of how they are getting such great astro shots.  And I would love to hear from others that are NOT experts but have their own questions that I haven't asked.   Thanks to all that are willing to share!

[AndyMc]

Oh boy... This is definitely a subject that we could talk about endlessly.

I'll start with the hardware I use:

On the capture side, I'm shot using these lenses:

• EF 300mm f/4L IS USM
• EF 500mm f/4L IS USM 

I use both of them on an EOS Ra. I mount the EF lenses on the RF body w/ an EF to RF adapter. I use an adapter w/ a filter drawer where I can place astrophoto based filters using a 3D printer holder for 2" unmounted filters.

For mounts, I have used (in increasing capabilities):

• Sky-Watcher Star Adventurer 2i: I grabbed this to shoot the total eclipse in 2024. It was fine for that w/ the RF 800mm f/11 I shot the eclipse with, but I wouldn't want to do night time astro work with it. I'm sure it's fine for very wide field work, but the Go-To capabilities of the mounts listed below are (to me) indispensable.
• Sky-Watcher Star Adventurer GTi. This will work with the EF 300mm, but that's probably towards the upper end of what I'd put on it.
• Celestron AVX. This works with the EF 500mm, but it's never been a great mount. Its guidance is only "so-so", which is why I grabbed the next mount in the list.
• Sky-Watcher EQ-6 Pro. Incredibly heavy, so far less portable than the other mounts above, but much better performance than any of them.

For control, I use an ASIAir Plus. This is the brain. It handles everything from polar alignment, controlling the mount for go-to functionality, defining the plan for the night, data storage (in .fit files), etc.

And then there's all the accessories:

• Electronic Focus Motor (and custom collar for the motor to drive the lens)
• Dew heaters
• Guide scope
• Guide camera
• USB hub
• A custom rig to hold everything together

Here's a photo of the monstrosity that then goes on top of the mount:

AndyMc_0-1785850879517.png

For software, I'm firmly in the Siril camp for all stacking and processing. Between that and all the plugins available for it, it handles everything that I need to do. Some people prefer PixInsight, but not everyone wants to pay their license fee.

As for choosing what I'm going to image... It's really going to depend on what's in the sky that time of year, where it appears in the sky (I have terrible sight lines in some directions), if the target is a good dual band or broad band candidate, how long the target will be visible for, the size of the target, etc. There are so many variables that go into it. I find sites like https://telescopius.com/ to be a huge help in planning.

I think that's enough from me for one post, but this definitely something I could talk about endlessly.

[SignifDigits]

Thanks!  Would you share a couple of your favorite shots?  I'm thinking there are like two main shots in astrophotography - wider field and deeper sky objects?  Yes?  I know someone who uses telescopes - I may be opening a can of worms there.

[AndyMc]

Yep, there are definitely different "disciplines" for astrophotography. If I were making a list, I'd probably go with:

• Solar: Boy is a well captured solar image impressive, but I don't have the specialized gear required to anything beyond standard white light observation. I used a white light safety solar filter to image the total eclipse in 2024, and it was a great experience, but it pales in comparison to capturing the sun with a proper Hα solar scope.
  AndyMc_1-1785935911101.png
• Lunar: I'm sure the name gives this one a way. This is harder to do when sticking with standard DSLR and mirrorless offerings. If you stuck to standard EF and RF lenses, even the EF or RF 1200mm lenses would only fill the center part of the frame with the moon on a full frame camera. Example (from https://astronomy.tools/calculators/field_of_view/ ) :
  AndyMc_2-1785936297537.png
  This is the type of object that a longer focal length telescope, or a telescope plus a Barlow, would be better.
• Planetary: And again, the name gives it away. This is where you absolutely need longer focal lengths and buckets of light. Cameras with smaller sensors, a smaller pixel pitch, and higher frame rate (for video capture) excel in this type of photography.
• Wide Field: This is definitely an area that DSLR and mirrorless gear can excel. Here you'd be capturing the large scale structures of the night sky, potentially combined with landscape foregrounds to create the awesome nightscapes you see. I live an urban/suburban environment, so I don't have much that's visually interesting enough to really pursue capturing.
• Deep Sky: This is what I concentrate on. I can spend weeks capturing one object, with 30-35+ hours of data (or more) for one object. This is where you're capturing single objects, or small clusters of objects, in the night sky. Subjects could be galaxies, nebulae, globular clusters, etc. This is where a tracking mount with Go To capabilities becomes invaluable. I'm able to break down the setup come morning and then go back out another night and capture more data on the object and the mount and controller will ensure we're back on target.
  AndyMc_4-1785937697604.pngAndyMc_3-1785937651492.pngAndyMc_5-1785937754371.png

All 3 of those were captured with a standard mirrorless body and EF mount lenses.

I have both a Newtonian and a SCT telescope that I will be integrating into my imaging once we start getting towards longer nights this winter, and boy I expect that learning curve to be steep.

[SignifDigits]

Ooooohhh.   Wowwwww.  Very cool!!  Thanks for sharing.  Just the wide field, lunar and "lightweight" deep sky stuff for me, I think!

[Daniel6]

Astrophotography can be a fascinating area to explore, especially when combining a tracker with longer focal lengths and image stacking. Your experience with the Move Shoot Move tracker, 70–200mm f/2.8, Deep Sky Stacker, and PhotoPills gives you a good starting point, and the upcoming lunar eclipse sounds like a great opportunity to experiment further. I’d be especially interested in hearing how others choose their shooting locations, determine exposure settings, manage white balance and focusing, and decide when tracking is beneficial versus shooting from a fixed tripod. Tips on stacking, reducing noise, avoiding star trails, and processing lunar versus deep-sky images would also be valuable. There is a lot to learn from comparing different workflows, so hopefully experienced photographers can share both their successful techniques and the mistakes they learned from along the way.

[JeffXB]

“I have tried shooting with my 15-35 f/28 without great results.”

I’m curious why you’re not getting great results. That’s my go to lens for night scape, Milky Way and when trying to catch meteors. 

I too have the MSM Nomad. Not sure what set up you bought, but I bought the one that included a laser pointer, “V” plate, equatorial mount and mount for a cell phone to use an app for polar alignment. For that I use Polar Align Pro. 

Setting up is fairly easy, just remember to ensure your tripod is level and double check it once you’ve got your gear attached. 

For the lunar eclipse you’ll still have to occasionally adjust your camera as the moon moves quite rapidly thru the view finder. The Move Shoot Move star tracker wasn’t designed to track the moon. Instead of centering it, position it about one third up from the bottom corner. For me in SE Asia it was the bottom left third and the moon would track diagonally across the screen to the top right.

I was shooting using the R6 M2 and I tried two lenses, RF 70-200mm Z and RF 200-80mm, along with a Canon RF 2x extender. I played with various focal lengths and the sharpest photos I got were at around the 700mm range using the 200-800. To me it seemed that the extender softened the photos just a tad. At that focal length it also filled the frame, but not completely. Personally I found that to also be the most ascetically pleasing.  

I should also add that I’m relatively new to astrophotography and will be following this thread with great interest. 

[SignifDigits]

The reason for "without great results" was my location and user errors, not the lens or setup.  I plan to try again, for sure, using that lens for wide field.

[shadowsports]

You may also want to look at @Ms_Eis @allysonmarlow and @jrhoffman75 

@AndyMc those are some very good and  interesting shots.

[shadowsports]

This is my most recent Astro RF 200-800.  I need to try some stars with the RF 15-35.

shadowsports_0-1787155839819.png