Untracked Astrophotography

Starting Astrophotography with existing gear

Deep-Sky astrophotography is the the photography of stellar bodies outside of the solar system such as galaxies, planetary nebulae, open star clusters and globular clusters. This article is an introduction to Deep Sky Astrophotography with standard gear. Learn how to make images of the night sky without expensive special equipment.

Untracked image of the Whirlpool Galaxy taken with a 200 mm Lens at f/2.8.

Article Overview

Image Stacking

What are Lightframes, Darkframes and Flatframes? How to reduced noise and improve image quality by stacking multiple images.

Gear

A list of gear recommendations for Astrophotography in general and untracked astrophotography in particular.

Planning

How Stellarium can help you to plan the observation night. A few rules for where to shoot and how to select suitable targets.

Camera Settings

How to select exposure time, focal length and aperture. Setting up your camera for untracked astrophotography.

Gallery

Sample images taken with standard photographic gear without a tracking mount.

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This is a collection of images obtained by NASA or ESA space exploration missions.