A beginner's guide to Astrophotography

Getting started

In 1840, John William Draper revealed to the world the first successful astrophotography image – a photo of the Moon. Fast forward to today, and we now have huge telescopes orbiting around space such as the James Webb telescope, hosting three cameras capturing images of our universe.

However, we don’t need to be up in space to take images of our night sky. We can capture incredible photos from our own backyards. In order to produce images of our universe, you will need some equipment. There are a few options when starting out in this hobby:

• A mobile phone – most smart phones these days have long exposure cameras, allowing you to capture images of the Milky Way – our galaxy that appears as a faint band in the sky. Some modern smartphones have dedicated astrophotography features too which can be a bonus.
• A DSLR camera – A Digital Single-lens Reflex (DSLR) camera will allow you to take more detailed photos than a phone, and the interchangeable lenses mean you're able to take a wider variety of images including deep sky objects.
• A telescope – This can be used with either a mobile phone or DSLR camera.

Deciding what equipment is right for you really depends on your budget and target. I recommend checking out the following blogs/videos to help you choose:

• Space Centre blog - How to Buy a Telescope
• AstroBackyard – Choosing an Astrophotography Telescope: My Top 5
• BBC Sky at Night: 18 best telescopes for astronomy beginners, 2023

The equipment I use includes a Celestron AstroMaster LT 76 AZ telescope and an iPhone. This is a great beginner's telescope as it allows you to capture a variety of objects, without spending too much on expensive pieces of kit. Many of the photos in this blog were captured using this telescope!

When you are just starting out it is often helpful to have a guide to help you locate some interesting objects in the night sky. This can be in the form of a book, such as the yearly guide to the night sky by the Royal Observatory Greenwich, or an app on your phone/laptop such as ‘Stellarium’. There are lots of different objects you can photograph, and this blog will show you some of the different categories and what you might be able to see and image. 

Planetary astrophotography

The planets also make for a great target for beginners, as they are easy to find in the night sky due to their brightness. Planets appear to be much brighter than the rest of the stars in the sky due to their close proximity to Earth.

Jupiter is one of my favourite planets to capture, as even with beginner equipment you are able to see planetary details, such as its distinctive belts and zones. Jupiter makes an interesting target as it spins very fast, with a speed of approximately 28,000 miles per hour. To put this into context, this is around 28 times faster than the rotation speed of Earth. Therefore, if you observe Jupiter over the course of an evening, or even longer, you’ll be able to see different features. These could include some of its swirling clouds or the famous ‘Great Red Spot’.  

Another interesting Jupiter capture is the Galilean moons. These are the four largest moons of Jupiter and were discovered by Galileo in 1610. They were the first moons discovered to be orbiting planets other than our own, and played a large part in radically altering how we viewed the Solar System.

Since then, many other moons have been discovered orbiting this planet, but unfortunately, due to their size, we aren’t able to capture these from our backyards. However, we can capture the four Galilean moons, and the photo alongside shows Jupiter with 3 of these: Callisto, Europa and Ganymede (from left to right).