What’s one astrophotography tip that helped you improve?

Working your way up in this hobby you’ll find many realizations as you progress. Overall, the best tip I can give is to find out what the experienced imagers do. It won’t give you the skills as that takes time but it will put you on the right track and keep you from falling down the many rabbit holes you’ll find along the way.

SonnyE · Jul 9, 2026, 05:51 PM

Decide on what your interest lies in, then pursue that end.

Mine is DSO (Deep Space Objects) Nebula specifically. So my equipment and telescope are aimed toward that goal. I’ve owned 2 telescopes, and wore out 4 main cameras, and 2 guide cameras, and 2 mounts in 16+ years now.

So often I’ve seen posts where a beginner wants to engage DSO, Planetary, and star clusters. There is no one size fits all. Planetary has its specialties, DSO has its, and Star clusters are all over the place.

My experience was to decide on my interest, then pursue how to do that interest. Some folks want to buy the wrong equipment for what they seem to want to pursue in the hobby. And some seem to become collectors of telescopes with none being right for their interest. Which is fine, just say you want to be a collector.

When one finds an interest, study how to achieve that interest. Do your mind changing before you have a room full of equipment you rarely use.

One good tip I received was that small telescopes can do a lot for Nebulae. I used my 80mm Triplet for over 9 years before I decided to upgrade.

This is great advice. There is a whole movement of people that seem to think you are not doing it properly if you are not shooting at 1500mm FL…. If that is what you want to go for then great, but personally I get huge enjoyment from wide and ultra wide. As Sonny said - try and figure out what you like early.

Planning framing, spending time on here, spending time with Stellarium and different sky surveys. Do your ground work first. Same as in any endeavor.

Don’t compare yourself to others. Carve your own path. Listen to those that have carved that path before you, but don’t take it as gospel - we all learn best from our own failures and successes.

It is a very “gear centric” hobby. Sometimes step back, get out to a dark site with just a DSLR and some binoculars and look up. There is more “gear” in this hobby that just about anything else other than boats and cars and planes… If (like me) your gear financial choices are Corolla and not Ferrari then fine. Just work and get good, and get satisfaction from doing as well as you can with a budget. You and others will respect that as you push your gear… even if it is a seestar. The gear really doesn’t matter - your enjoyment and use of that gear does.

If it starts to become too hard in any way, shape or form - or becomes consuming - then just remember that we all started trying to capture the utter beauty of the night sky. Whether we saw it with our eyes from a dark sky, or were hit with the realization that it can be “seen” with filters from suburbia.

Never loose the curiosity that led you to this point of wanting to capture what so few can and do. If you do loose it and move on then fine, we all change and move on as people - hobbies can be fleeting. It is their very nature!

Lastly - it is photography. There is no rule book and no right or wrong way to do any of it.

Stars are part of the image. Let them shine. dont supress them

Bill McLaughlin · Jul 10, 2026 at 04:30 PM

Peák Gergely · Jul 10, 2026, 01:44 PM

Stars are part of the image. Let them shine. dont supress them

Part, but often not the actual subject. Too many stars can drown the subject.

There is a balance. See too many pictures where the stars drowned. Not natural

My best advice for newbies is to stop trying to image multiple targets in one night, and start spending multiple nights on one target.

12 amazing datasets a year is better than 4 average datasets a night…

I came into this hobby like a bull at a gate and I wanted to image EVERYTHING. I woulf give targets 2 or 4 hours max, then off to the next…

my images started to greatly improve when I realised these targets we shoot… They're not going anywhere in my lifetime… if I dont get to M42 this year or even for the next few years… who cares… it will still be there in a decade… I try to pick 2 targets per season to image, and plan to give them between 10h and 25h each.. weather loves to throw a spanner in the works but I either make do with what I have, or bank the data for next year…

I will almost always throw some contingency targets in my plan, a 2.5hr star cluster, or a 4.5h bright nebula… But, the moral of my story…

Take your time… Give the target the integration time it deserves… i find 10~15hrs produces absolutely good enough data sets, i dont see then need to go to 40~80hrs on a target, but 10~15 is sweet, 20hrs is almost always more than adequate… if you focus your efforts on fewer targets with longer integration times, you will have more high quality images… not to mention, in 5 years time when you go to do a reprocess, you will thank yourself that you have a decent data set.

The single best thing that transformed my imaging was a $100 home made pier setup and a cover. Next was automation in terms of a focuser, rotator, flat panel, wifi link etc etc. But leave that aside - just the pier and the cover is the real game changer. To go down, switch on, focus and then run a imaging session EASILY transformed everything. I cannot stress this enough - if there is a way to have your gear out and set up it will utterly change your imaging.

Switching from EQMOD to GSS and switching PHD2 to Innovations Foresight Skyguide for much better guiding. See : https://www.innovationsforesight.com/skyguide-and-skyguard/

Tip: The best telescope is the one you will use the most.

Why it matters: Buying a super large telescope with a heavy-duty mount and tripod is good, but if it means you don’t want to use it because it hurts your back or you don’t have the strength or motivation to move it, it will be a waste. In this case, a smaller telescope that in theory is “worse” but gets more use because it is more practical is better.

Example: The EQ8-R mount alone is 25.8kg, and when paired with a Quattro 300p at 21.8kg it means the total (with counter weights) will be over 50Kg! This combo will give fantastic results, but if it is too heavy to move and use (which it is for a lot of people), then it isn’t worth it. A smaller MK127 and AM3 mount, or even a small refractor, although not as good at gathering light, will be better because they will be used more often.

Level: Useful for everyone.

Don't forget to have fun. That's why we all started. If you're not having fun, you've lost your way somewhere along the journey.

Less is more when it comes to processing. Most of the “fancy” scripts out there don’t make an image better.

Hi John,

There’s a lot to tell about SkyGuard or the more extended SkyGuide which also offers realtime (!) autofocus with appropriate special optical adapter who’s purpose is to to introduce a specific astigmatism into the guide beam, neccesary for realtime guiding.

For guiding only a regular OAG with NIR-sensitive guide camera, like Lodestar PRO, will work, but it’s strongly recommended to add a filter to the OAG, so all visible light will be blocked below 700 nm.

Recommended filter : 31 mm , unmounted, Chroma NIR filter which fits all standard 1.25” OAG adapters, see https://www.chroma.com/products/parts/27054-i-bessell/

The 27054 I-Bessell bandpass filter transmits a single spectral band while blocking light on either side.

Guiding in NIR strongly surpresses air turbulance (twinkling stars), so stars and other information reaching the guide cam will be more stable, which already improves guiding, even with PHD2 !

However Skyguide uses full-frame information and doesn’t depend on stars only, like PHD2 and in my case double the guiding accuracy.

The more advanced option is using SkyGuide, as I do, which combines autoguiding and autofocus but in that case you need a special adapter, the Lacerta for Lodestar and is combined with the NIR filter in my case to get the optimum and most accurate results. I would prefer the ONAG but was impossible in my setup due limited backfocus, so I’m using my OAG and Lodestar PRO.

Here is exactly how the software suites handle an OAG + Lodestar PRO setup without an ONAG or Lacerta adapter:

1. SkyGuide (From the SkySurveyor Suite)

• Compatibility: Fully Compatible. [1, 2]

• How it works: SkyGuide is designed for guiding only. Instead of tracking a single star centroid, it uses digital image correlation to track the entire field of view (full-frame guiding). [1, 2, 3]

• OAG Support: The Innovations Foresight SkySurveyor documentation explicitly states that full-frame guiding works natively with standard guide scopes, self-guided filter wheels, and traditional Off-Axis Guiders (OAG). [1, 2]

• Requirement: Your Lodestar PRO just needs to connect to the software via its standard ASCOM driver. [1]

2. SkyGuard (From the SkySurveyor Suite)

• Compatibility: Guiding works, Autofocus DOES NOT. [1, 3]

• How it works: SkyGuard combines the full-frame guiding of SkyGuide with real-time autofocusing capabilities. [1]

• The Catch: The continuous, real-time autofocus feature requires a physical optical element to introduce specific astigmatism into the guide beam. Without an ONAG (which inherently has a dichroic cold mirror) or a Lacerta for Lodestar adapter (a physical lens attachment), the software cannot calculate focus changes. [1, 2, 3]

• Result: If you buy SkyGuard, it will default to working as a standard full-frame guider, but the real-time focus feature will remain completely disabled

It’s a real improvement for guiding and focising and it even works without stars being seen and light clouds (!), but it’s quite different from PHD (Push Here Dummy) , as the setup is rather complicated and reading the full manual (very strong recommended !) takes some time, but eventually it’s really worth the investment !

However, nowadays, AI bots (ChatGTP or Claude) could be be very useful and create a step-by-step instruction list for full and very detailed setup and optimization, but reading the manual will help to understand tuning the parameters !

Succes !