Astrophotography: Suggested Progression

This page is not written yet.

It’s intended to be a suggestion about what to tackle, in what order, to minimize frustration.

Outline of the idea:

• First get to know your scope visually
• Correct any mount issues, so you are getting rock-solid visual performance
• Video-based lunar and planetary
  • Use a webcam, video camera, DSLR on video, etc, to capture video of bright targets
    • Learn basic tracking
    • Learn composition and focusing
    • Learn basic computer skills by registering and combining images with Registax
  • Use short focal-length scope, and DSLR or CSC in prime focus, for wide-field imaging (M31, NGC869/882, etc)
    • Further tune and improve mount sturdiness and tracking
    • Refine mount polar alignment and periodic error correction
    • Learn focusing via repeated exposure, with focus aid
    • Learn issues with longer exposures
    • Learn dark frame subtraction
    • Learn flat-field compensation
    • Learn image stacking
  • Increase focal length to capture smaller objects
    • Further tune mount
  • (Optional) switch to dedicated astronomy CCD camera