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Please don't forget to follow the subreddit rules before you post here, or your post may be removed. They're available in the sidebar on or here in the wiki.
Please don't forget to follow the subreddit rules before you post here, or your post may be removed. They're available in the sidebar on or here in the wiki.


[[Posting Guidelines & Rules Explanation]]
[[Posting Guidelines and Rules Explanation|Posting Guidelines & Rules Explanation]]


Here is an expanded version with explanations of why the rules are in place:
Here is an expanded version with explanations of why the rules are in place:

Revision as of 14:00, 21 June 2023

Welcome to the !astrophotography Wiki!

Content by /u/iklysp, /u/Orangelantern, /u/Bersonic, /u/loldi, /u/arandomkerbonaut, /u/yawg6669, /u/azzkicker7283 and numerous members of the community who have provided suggestions and feedback.

Hello and welcome to the Wiki! The purpose of this wiki is to provide understandable and concise information mostly aimed at new people, but we hope it may provide useful information for intermediate and advanced astrophotographers also. We'll attempt to cover important topics and frequently asked questions with telescope recommendations, glossaries, how-tos and much more. If you have any ideas of something you'd like to see added to the wiki or find any dead links/mistakes, feel free to contact us via "message the moderators" and let us know! This is the main frontpage which should have the majority of the wiki links in it.

Community Rules

Please don't forget to follow the subreddit rules before you post here, or your post may be removed. They're available in the sidebar on or here in the wiki.

Posting Guidelines & Rules Explanation

Here is an expanded version with explanations of why the rules are in place:

Frequently Asked Questions

This section deals with frequently asked questions and important beginner reading. Have a read of the sections linked below and you should have the answers in no time. If there's something not covered here or you need specific advice on something, please go ahead and ask on our weekly ask-anything threads - they're stickied on the frontpage at all times.

Getting Started

The introduction page includes a basic overview of the typical setups people use, covering a very basic widefield setup and a basic telescope setup.

[Click here for the getting started page.](http://www.reddit.com/r/astrophotography/wiki/faq)

What does 'X' mean?

Astrophotography comes with a lot of niche and unique terms and abbreviations which may not make much sense at first. We have tried to cover a few common definitions in our glossary page. This is by no means a complete list but should get you far enough to where you understand what people are talking about. If you find a term on the subreddit you're unfamilliar with the definition should be here, and if not send us a message and we'll add it.

[Click here for the Astrophotographer's Glossary](http://www.reddit.com/r/astrophotography/wiki/glossary)

What gear should I buy?

The gear you should buy depends on what you want to image. There are a huge number of different mounts, different OTAs, cameras, each has their drawbacks and benefits. While we can't design your imaging rig completely we *do* have a handy page with a breakdown of potential and usable rigs at certain price points. Note that these are subject to variation and may not be 100% accurate as the article can't be updated regularly enough to follow price trends. We usually recommend buying used gear to save money as most of us are on a budget, but if you want to buy brand new stuff the rigs contained within will apply to you too - just bear in mind you can get a lot more for your money 2nd hand if you're willing to take the risk.

[Click here for the main telescope recommendation page.](http://www.reddit.com/r/astrophotography/wiki/what_telescope)

Astrophotography and indeed astronomy in general is quite an involved and technical hobby, and there often isn't much overlap between the two. Astrophotography scopes are much smaller than visual scopes - you will need to do some research of your own as well to determine exactly what you need to buy. Before you read this you may want to look at an album by /u/Bersonic of a 'typical' imaging rig, explaining what each of the parts are and what they do [via this link](http://imgur.com/a/cGwEG).

Common imaging issues

There are a lot of things that can go wrong in imaging or make your image look funny. Some are caused by optics, some by your tracking, and some are caused by processing. We have a short guide on what the cause of those weird dark spots around the edges or those streaky stars might be. Again, this isn't a complete list but it covers some common issues that we see fairly often. Information about other problems not covered may be in our [glossary](http://www.reddit.com/r/astrophotography/wiki/glossary).

[Check out this article showing common image issues.](http://www.reddit.com/r/astrophotography/wiki/image_issues)

Astrophotography Core Topics

Here are some core topics that we think are important to understand. These pages go into more detail than the FAQ and glossary pages and will hopefully give you a more in-depth explanation of how certain things work.

Safety

Astrophotography might be thought of as a completely safe hobby, but as with anything you can't be complacent about it. There are a couple of things which can put you in danger, including imaging from remote areas with potentially dangerous conditions, or observing the Sun. This may seem obvious but it's important to make sure you're properly prepared for dealing with present dangers.

[Click here for the safety page](http://www.reddit.com/r/astrophotography/wiki/safety).

Stacking

Stacking is slightly different between deep sky and planetary. We'll attempt to give a brief summary here and explain in more depth on a separate page.

Planetary stacking

In planetary stacking we capture a short video using a webcam at a high framerate. This allows us to overcome seeing issues and atmospheric turbulence (to an extent), and also increases our signal to noise ratio. We can stack the best parts of the best frames from the videos and apply wavelet sharpening to them to bring out fine details which otherwise would be invisible.

[Click here for the in-depth planetary stacking page](http://www.reddit.com/r/astrophotography/wiki/stacking_planets).

DSO stacking

DSO stacking is a method of increasing the signal to noise ratio through the combination of images. To stack DSOs we must take very long exposures (anywhere from 60 seconds to 60 minutes) as they are very dim. A single frame has the same level of signal as a stacked frame, however the noise is *drastically* different. If you compare a single frame to a combined frame the background will be far less noisy and the image will look 'smoother' and allow you to stretch the histogram further and pull out more detail. To reduce the noise further we can use dark frames and bias frames. Capturing DSOs also introduces vignetting so flat frames are useful too.

[Click here for the in-depth DSO stacking page](http://www.reddit.com/r/astrophotography/wiki/stacking_dsos).

Light Pollution

Light pollution is an important consideration while imaging. It may not be avoidable but less light pollution can improve your images greatly. If you live near a dark site it's 100% worth driving there to image instead of from your backyard in town. It makes a huge amount of difference on the quality of the images you can capture. That said, many of our members image from cities or towns and are able to produce great results so if you don't have the ability to be portable don't let that discourage you.

[Here is our page on light pollution and its effects](http://www.reddit.com/r/astrophotography/wiki/lightpollution).

Polar Alignment

Polar alignment can be confusing to astrophotographers new and old. Why should we polar align? How do we polar align? Our polar alignment guide will take you through the basics along with several methods of doing so.

[Polar alignment guide](http://www.reddit.com/r/astrophotography/wiki/polar_alignment).

CCDs vs Mono cams vs DSLRs

Thanks to /u/evwark and /u/orangelantern for [writing this useful guide](http://www.reddit.com/r/astrophotography/wiki/ccd_info) to the benefits and drawbacks of CCDs vs DSLR's and Mono imaging cams.

Filters for Astrophotography

Thanks to /u/yawg6669 for [writing this guide on filters and their usage](http://www.reddit.com/r/astrophotography/wiki/filters) in the context of both DSLR and Mono imaging.

User Reviews

We encourage you to review equipment, especially obscure items. If the reviews are good they'll go into [the reviews page](http://www.reddit.com/r/astrophotography/wiki/reviews).

Useful Software/Links

As well as the telescope hardware software for processing and capturing images can make or break your results. Processing is indeed one of the most important parts of the hobby - you can get the best data in the world but if you don't know how to process it you'll never see its full potential.

Acquisition Software

Deep Sky Object (DSO) Imaging
Planetary/Lunar Imaging
  • SharpCap - Image capturing software for planetary work. (Free & Paid pro version)
  • FireCapture- Free software for planetary work. (Both FireCapture and SharpCap have similar functionality)

Processing Software

DSO Processing
  • DeepSkyStacker - DSO sub-exposures stacking software
  • StarTools - Post-processing software written by /u/verylongtimelurker
  • PixInsight - Extremely powerful, astrophotography-specific post-processing software
Planetary/Lunar Processing
  • Registax - Planetary video processing/stacking software
  • Autostakkert! 2 - Planetary video stacking software
  • Planetary Image Pre-Processor (PIPP) - Preprocessing of planetary images i.e. conversion of video and image formats, cropping, best frame selection, etc
  • Microsoft ICE - Mosaic/composite image stitching software, useful for lunar mosaics
  • Winjupos - Advanced planetary software for de-rotation/mapping/planetary moon alignment.
  • Virtual Dub - Video converting software, requires plugin for .MOV -> .AVI

Miscellaneous Software

  • iMerge- Allows dragging and dropping of videos to easily keep track of lunar mosaic coverage
  • Stellarium - Free software that lets you input your location and will show you when objects will be up and at what time.
  • FITS Liberator - FIT -> TIFF file converter  
  • Tenmon - FITS and XISF image viewer, converter and indexer
Smartphone Software

Google Sky Map for Android - Free planetarium app

SkEye for Android - Free planetarium app. Slightly better accuracy than Google Sky Map

SkyView for iPhone- Planetarium for iPhone

Weather Information & Forecasts

windyty - Live wind/rain/pressure map and data visualization for worldwide weather conditions

Clearoutside - Astronomy weather forecasting site, shows other cool information such as ISS passes, Moon phase, sunrise, etc.

Meteoblue Forecast - Shows astro-related weather information such as seeing, jet stream, wind speed, etc.

Guides & How-Tos

Below are some excellent guides created by users of our community. They cover a range of materials including both beginner and more advanced topics. If there are topics here that are not covered or topics you would like to add, please reach out and we will include them.

Post-Processing Guides

PixInsight

Photoshop

Imaging Guides

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