Astrophotography 101

Welcome to your learning dashboard! I’m excited to see that you’re pushing through and hanging on! Here, you will find links to the different topics we will be covering. First, let’s build on what we covered earlier and give some context to this. 

Grab yourself a pen and a notebook. No, I’m not going to ask for an essay, but writing things down helps it stick better and gives you a visual representation of your growth! Also, I’m going to ask a couple of questions in the next few paragraphs, and you might know more about this than you think you do!

Let’s start with the first half of astrophotography which is broken down into two parts. Do you remember what those two parts are? That’s right, equipment and software! Let’s break this down even more and go step by step. 

Can you take a guess as to what equipment you’ll need? Use that pen and notebook and write down every piece of equipment that comes to mind that you think you need for astrophotography. 

How about software? Remember, software is what runs our equipment and allows everything to communicate with each other allowing them to run like a well oiled machine. Skip a couple of lines on your notebook and jot down every piece of software you think you’ll need. If you don’t know the names of the software, that’s ok, that’s why we are here! Simply jot down everything you think the software needs to do. 

Now, the second half of astrophotography is processing your image. Skip a couple of lines again and jot down what you think processing is and the various items you are trying to accomplish with processing. 

This notebook is your height chart and you now have a reference point to monitor your growth! 

Below, you’ll see each of these subjects where we will dive even deeper into them. If you are just getting started, I recommend visiting equipment as that is where everything starts and the software you choose is based on the equipment you have. Have your pen and notebook handy and I’ll see you on the other side!