New to Deep Space Astro? My Advice to You...

New to deep space astrophotography? Here's my advice for beginners just getting started. I'll discuss things like gear, tips for when you're out photographing, and some guidance when it comes to processing your images.
It's easy to get lost in the deep, technical aspects of astrophotography, but I wanted to take a step back from all of that and give some tips and tricks that are easily lost when starting your astro journey.
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00:00 Introduction
01:20 Tip 1
02:34 Tip 2
02:51 Tip 3
03:17 Tip 4
04:12 Tip 5
05:39 Tip 6
07:05 Tip 7
08:32 Tip 8
09:33 Tip 9
11:25 Tip 10
12:50 Tip 11
14:00 Tip 12

[@AmatureAstronomer]

I decided I wanted to take celestial photographs in August 2023. I had never owned a telescope or a camera before. Everyone on line told me that my first telescope should be a Dobsonian and aperture was king, so I should buy the largest one I could afford. New to the hobby, I took the advice of my betters. Even though I had a budget of $300, I went ahead and bought a First Light 10" Dobsonian for $1000. I am elderly and feeble and took the scope out side once. Had no idea what to do with it, I could see anything. Was down on my cack for 3 days. I gave it to a friend who only had a 60mm refractor and a mount he made from a coat hanger. I did learn something for my $1000 fee. Other folks do not know my circumstances and I should do more research and listen less to those who do not know me. So, my second scope was a Celestron Omni 150mm XLT reflector. Half the weight. Still too heavy. Figured I might use it when I became strong, so I kept it. I then bought an Orion Observer 134mm reflector with a right asension motor drive. Not too heavy. Took it out and let my eyes get used to the dark. I could see one star, Alcaid. Hard to star hop with only one star in an unfamiliar sky. I am in a Bortle 6 region... when the oil refinery 1.25 miles Northeast of my house is not in operation. And, have thick cataracts. Realizing I needed a go to mount, I bought a Celestron 90mm SLT. Could not align the mount which required aiming the telescope at 2 or 3 bright stars because I could not see them and could not bend over the scope to look thorough the finder scope because of my back. Getting a little frustrated. So, I did more research and found that aligning with SynScan I would be given a list of starts and the mount would try to find the one I selected. I also found that I could plate solve in real time using the "Push to Assist" function in Sharp Cap Pro, so I would not need a finder scope, at all. Still don't use one. So, I bought a Sky Watcher AZ GTi mount. Worked nicely. But, found field rotation was eating my photos, so I bought a Sky Watcher Star Adventurer GTi, which I use for all my light optical tubes and bought a Astro Gadget go to conversion kit for the CG-4 mount that came with my 150mm reflector. Still not strong enough to hike that optical tube up onto the CG-4, but now I can get my 8 pound optical tubes up there. I won't go into the camera experiences or my experiences with refractors, SCTs and reflectors, except to say that $10,000 later, I have learned a whole lot about what not to buy and can take pretty good photos. Now all I have to do is learn to use the video camera I bought, learn to edit videos and run a You Tube channel, and if still alive, start posting my photos.

[@ianlauerastro]

Thanks so much for sharing your experience. It will help many out there what much of the process of getting into this hobby can look like

[@davidjgburnett]

I think I'm going the same way. Hopefully I'll improve before I break the bank. 😅

[@indysbike3014]

A tip, use a green laser as a finder to quickly center on a bright star for focusing. Then put a bahtinov mask on the telescope and adjust focus manually. Later you can add an electronic focuser.

[@ianlauerastro]

That's a great tip! It's easy to get lost in the night sky if you're not familiar.

[@davegibson6604]

Great video. I started 6 years ago, and if I could have seen and followed the advise of this video back then, I would have gotten farther, faster.

[@ianlauerastro]

Thank you, my hope is new astrophotographers can learn from our early mistakes. The more people imaging and sharing the stars, the better!

[@tombock336]

Fantastic video, brother!! A decade of experience and real-world learning consensed down into 15 mins. Awesome. ✌

[@ianlauerastro]

Thanks Tom!!!!

[@SVI_999]

Nice video, brilliant!!. After 20 years since I stopped astronomy (chemical films, piggyback, DSLR 3Mp and so on) I’m here again. Things changed a lot. Now I’m in the process of leaving my Maksutov 150 for visual (that I actually love) and start building my new setup. Good advise, no doubt. Thx

[@joaquinfabrega]

What you said is the same a friend and I talked 10 years ago. I agree 100% with you.

[@ianlauerastro]

Thanks! Sounds like you and your friend have been through many of these troubles I've experienced

[@sodakastronut]

Excellent video. Just shared your video's link on CN>Equipment Discussions>Refractors>Help Me Pick My First Refractor thread. You condensed hours of raw-fingered CN posts into a consise 15 minute video. Keep up the great work! 😅 CS & GB from South Dakota Black Hills!

[@ianlauerastro]

Wow thank you so much, I really appreciate that!

[@IvanProsper]

brilliant. I'm just starting out and get good visuals on my 8inch dob... looking to move on up to some astrophotography now. I am lucky to have good viewing from my back yard, so just need to resist the temptation to fall into some of the traps you mentioned!

[@ianlauerastro]

An 8 inch dob is amazing for visual, great choice. Good luck on your astro journey, and clear skies!

[@xandercruz900]

My first Astrophotos were of Comet Hyakutake in.....holy crap, 1996? Yikes! Seriously for beginners, just work on simple tracking with a entry level DSLR (or even some smartphones these days) for a bit. Make a barndoor tracker and get really good at that + master image processing. DO NOT spend a bunch of money on stuff at the jump. Honestly it is risky and can be horribly unsatisfying if you just go in that hard. Lots of time it's more cool to be creative and achieve good results with improvised techniques.

[@ianlauerastro]

Fantastic advice! Simple is always the best place to start. It’s far too easy to get too much to fast and get overwhelmed

[@varadinagypal]

youtube brought this one up. So I wrote my own photoplanner software (no links allowed, thank you google) that proposes targets based on the selected equipment, location, time, the position of the moon etc. It is one thing to be new to astro, and another to be new to everything that's science and tech.

[@dumpydalekobservatory]

My advice especially if budget is an option is to buy second hand, you mention the mount & I totally agree as I got myself an old dead Celestron CGE pro, now hear me out I fitted an onstep kit to it & it tracks amazingly good & all for the price of a second hand HEQ5 so definitely one of my best investments. However I have made plenty of mistakes to so nothing is ever perfect. I will say though apart from a few smaller pieces of equipment that I've bought new I'd say a good 85% is used & I know triplet telescopes are better but there are some doublets that are pretty decent performers to.

[@Miguel_Noppe]

Solid advice 👍🏻

[@markabbott6223]

Great advice and excellent video. I learned the ropes with a little AZGTi mount, 60mm doublet and DSLR. Once I got a good mount (EQ6R Pro) everything became easier. I now have 3 Astro cams and 3 imaging scopes from 360mm to 1400 focal length. All of your tips are spot on.

[@kgeissler2]

I don't know if the mount capacity statement is 100% true anymore. I recently purchased a Star adventurer GTI and asked Skywatcher about the capacity . They said that the GTI can go to the full stated capacity. New strain wave mounts can also go to full capacity

[@pengpinlac199]

Informative 😊

[@ianlauerastro]

Glad it was helpful!

[@ziggyfrnds]

Speaking of refractors. I didn't have $$$ to spend on triplet apo so I got an ED doublet, I've found good ED doublets to be close to triplets in performance as makes a difference.....at least to a rank amateur like me :-)

[@dustyhammer7569]

M64 on Astro bin always looks like a jpeg that never finished rendering. Despite its distance and size in scope, wanna see what 32 hours exposure time looks like for it to see if anything more renders for it

[@TheAdsells]

hi Ian...nice information..I am looking for my 3 years old to buy 1st ever telescope....after some search on the internet I have come up with the telescope (Bresser Solarix Telescope 76/350 with Solar Filter)....would you think that this telescope will be good and upgradeable? I am totally illiterate about astronomy :P......Waiting for the answer....

[@cratervanawesome]

Gotta disagree with the payload capacity stuff. I've heard the 50 percent repeated over and over from KZbinrs but when I was shopping around I spoke to people at a few different manufacturers and they said they have no idea where that came from. Seeing at a long focal length will end affecting your guiding/tracking more than the weight of that scope.

[@noahstump24]

I want the Dobson telescoop N 203/1200 Skyliner FlexTube BD DOB is it good?

[@ianlauerastro]

If youre looking for a visual telescope, that’s a great choice. If you’re looking to do deep space astrophotography, it’s not going to do a great job

[@noahstump24]

@@ianlauerastro thats what i was looking for, thanks!

[@deltacx1059]

2:28 who is buying a 1500$ mount for visual? Also no normal beginner can pay even 1k for a mount in a hobby they may not even ve dedicated to.