Four tips for better astrophotos

If you’re new to astrophotography and struggling to get pleasing results, I can help. Presented here are a few tried-and-true tips to help you take better astropics whether you’re shooting the night sky with a DSLR and lens or photographing deep sky marvels with a specialised astrocamera and telescope. These pointers are mutually supporting to help you obtain that “Oh, wow!” image. Familiarise yourself with all four tips and apply them together on your next imaging session.

1: SAAS! (Shoot, assess, adjust, shoot)

I formulated the SAAS acronym for my own purposes because it succinctly describes the astrophotography process. No matter what equipment you use, a consistent process is key.

After carefully framing your subject, focusing and selecting your camera settings, your image. That part is the resulting picture, carefully evaluating its overall quality. I use my camera LCD (or computer monitor) at maximum brightness to properly assess what I’ve captured. Take your time with this step. Are the stars sharp and round? Is your target positioned within the frame where you want it? Is the amount of exposure sufficient?