Astronomy Photographer of the Year 2024 winners

I'd add that many of the people on that list are active in the /r/astrophotography discord. Good place to hang out and learn.

Highly recommend Nico Carver (Nebula Photos) especially if you're interested in DIY or the more creative/artistic aspects.

https://youtube.com/@nebulaphotos?si=_Uf6x7nQ_HwNOlZ_

Another great one is Cuiv The Lazy Geek. Very prolific and technical. He produces amazing images from light polluted Tokyo.

https://youtube.com/@cuivthelazygeek?si=X2gy_W5KYO7SW2tu

There is only one correct answer to that prompt.

They list 72 cookies as strictly necessary and you can't unselect them.

They are effectively claiming that their website cannot function without the cookies from presumably 72 different third parties.

It’s surprisingly easy to get a good shot of the Milky Way! I was blown away when I first bought a mirror less camera and stuck it on a cheap tripod. Most of the winning shots are also notable for composition and location. Deep sky shots with detail of galaxies and nebulae (anything zoomed in) require a much more complex and expensive gear, but wide angle is generally somewhat easy to capture if you have good dark skies. Just set up a 30 second exposure with settings as described here: https://kenrockwell.com/tech/how-to-photograph-the-milky-way...

I've seen a couple of shots of the ISS in front of the Sun before - always very impressive, but man, the perspective on this one. Incredible photography

I was somewhat surprised at the scale. The station appears quite big compared to the sun's disk, doesn't it? These astronomical conjunctions are always useful when trying to internalize the geometry in the Solar system.

It reminds me of Outer Wilds(the video game).

It’s almost always stacking.

This type of photography has recently become much more approachable thanks to products like the SeeStar S50/S30 and the Dwarf 3. These are smarter devices that can find and image most anything in the sky for you. And they retail for under $500.

You won’t be as good as these photos or people who send $10k rigs to be remotely operated at Starfront[0] in Brady, Texas - but you’ll be impressed with what you can get from almost anywhere.

[0]: https://starfront.space/

My guess is very precise tracking to counter the earths orbit, long exposures, sensitive image sensors, massive lenses to capture the light, a remote location and luck.

You take many long exposure photographs of the same spot in the sky, stack them together, and then edit the images to make them look nice.

There is a ton of specialized equipment and software for the hobby - star trackers, astrophotography specific cameras, optics, camera control software, stacking software, and of course Adobe lightroom and photoshop

You can start out with just a digital camera/cellphone and tripod, and go all the way up to a full blown backyard observatory

Yeah I'd love to buy one in max res and have them printed. Maybe I'll reach to that one guy on Instagram.