Home
Recordings Sheet Music
Space Aircraft BC Birds
Slow Down FFS

"The universe is a pretty big place. If it's just us, seems like an awful waste of space."
--Carl Sagan

Milky Way
Sagittarius and the Dark Horse Nebula, 2024.

I tend to go from one obsession to another, and the latest thing to capture my attention is... astronomy!

I always thought living in the city meant that with an affordable setup on a good night, I would *maybe* get a fuzzy view of Jupiter and Saturn, and anything beyond that was out of reach. I was very wrong! With a modern DSLR, a tracking mount (to counteract Earth's rotation), and the technique of image stacking (taking many long exposures of a subject and averaging the results into a single frame), it is possible to get some pretty impressive images of galaxies and nebulae more than 50 million light years away - that's around 500 quintillion km! It seems there is no end to what you can discover out there.


Messier Catalog

Messier Catalog: this famous list of astronomical objects was compiled by French astronomer Charles Messier in the 1700s and is still popular among amateur observers. I photographed these over the course of about 18 months using Nikon cameras (D7200 and D5600 modified for higher Hydrogen Alpha sensitivity), a Redcat 51 refractor (250mm), Nikon 300mm f/4 and Nikon 500mm f/5.6 telephoto lenses, and an iOptron Skyguider Pro equatorial mount on a Manfrotto 055 tripod.


If you're looking to get started in astrophotography and already have a DSLR, I would recommend a prime lens or refracting telescope in the 200-300mm range and a motorized tracking mount like the iOptron Skyguider Pro or the SkyWatcher Star Adventurer. You will also need a very sturdy tripod. There are many great resources out there now that will help you get started - see here and here for ideas and tutorials.

You can have a look at my latest efforts here. Everything is a work in progress as I continue to learn, but it has been a blast so far!