About Me and My Astrophotography Equipment

Here is a quick overview of my astronomy equipment collected over the yeara, my tools and the software I use for post processing my photos.

Here is a quick overview of the essential astronomy equipment I use, why I chose it and how it helps me, and some history about me and how I got started.

My fascination with astronomy was kindled in 2005 when I embarked on a mission to photograph the lunar eclipse. Armed with a Fuji FinePix S602, I managed to capture a few shots of the Pleiades star cluster during the eclipse. Although the quality of the photos was far from perfect, it was a transformative experience that piqued my curiosity about the celestial wonders. It wasn't until Christmas, when my parents gifted me my first telescope, that I truly delved into the world of astronomy.

At that time, my eyes were bad, and I had -6.75 prescriptions, so visual observations were limited. Also, the light pollution was bad, so I focused on astrophotography. In February 2006, I was involved in a serious car crash. I remember I was brought home from the hospital on a stretcher and looking up at the stars and seeing a cluster of stars in the corner of my eyes. I looked at it but couldn't see anything, yet looking to either side of it, there it was. I later learned about averted vision and that I was looking again at the Pleiades star cluster.

Once I had recovered enough to walk, I started taking my camera out, photographing the stars and, later, the telescope. I wanted to see and photograph more clusters and deep-space objects.

My first and main telescope is a 200mm (8-inch) Newtonian reflector telescope, which is ideal for deep sky observing. This type of telescope has a large aperture, allowing me to pick up faint objects such as galaxies, nebulae and star clusters. This telescope came with the HEQ5 mount, a heavy equatorial with Quartz driven motors. Polar alignment was a pain since I couldn't see Polaris, but using the drift method, I could get an acceptable alignment for sub-10-second exposures. I later upgraded the internals to a Synscan GoTo, allowing me to use a 3-star alignment instead of a polar alignment. I also bought smaller, lighter telescopes. The basic setup has remained the same while I've upgraded my cameras.

• Telescopes
  • Skywatcher Explorer 200 Newtonian
  • Skywatcher Startravel 102 Refractor
  • Skywatcher Skymax 90 Muksatov
  • ZWO Seestar S50 Smart Telescipe
• Mounts
  • Skywatcher HEQ5 with Synscan GoTo Upgrade
  • Skywatcher EQ3
• Cameras
  • Sony RX10MK4
  • Canon EOS 80d
  • Bresser Full HD Deep Sky Camera and Guider

I also use a range of astronomical filters to enhance my view of the night sky. These include nebula filters, which help to bring out the colours and details in nebulae, and lunar filters, which help to reduce the moon's glare. Most important is the light pollution filter, which filters out most of the light pollution at the expense of exposure time. I also use a Barlow lens to increase the magnification of my telescope when observing planets.

I use a few cameras to take photos of objects in the night sky. Most photos I take with my Canon 80d DSLR connected via a t-mount adaptor. I use a Bresser Deep Sky camera for planetary and deep space.

I use software to help me plan my observing sessions. I mainly use Stellarium to help me identify objects in the night sky and plan sessions, and I also use Sky Map on Android to navigate the sky in the field.

For post-processing images, I use Adobe Lightroom, Photoshop, Siril, Deep Sky Stacker, Registax and Star Trails.