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Astrophotography: 13 Awesome Backyard Astronomy Photos

Categories: Cool Photos, Featured
Written By: lightstalking

Backyard astronomy photography is probably one of the most difficult types of photography that can be undertaken by the amateur photographer. It is also one of the most equipment intensive and expensive types of photography.

Luckily for us, some amateur photographers still take the time to equip and train themselves and so are able to show us remarkable work like the astronomy photos below. But it is not an easy thing to do this type of photography. In fact a quick look at the Flickr pools available to photographers of astronomical images quickly shows that this niche requires a lot of dedication and practice – not many images turn out as well as those below!

Below we have found 13 stunning examples of astrophotography (astronomy photos) taken by backyard astronomers – of stars and galaxies, that we think are some of the most beautiful examples of what can be done with a telescope, camera and some know-how from anyone’s backyard. Please feel free to link to any other examples of great backyard astronomy photography in the comments.

Horsehead and Flame

[The Horsehead and Flame Nebulae. Taken with a SBIG ST-L-4K 3 CCD Camera.]

M101 - The Pinwheel Galaxy

[The Pinwheel Galaxy.]

Comet 17P/Holmes with Tail

[Comet 17P/Holmes with Tail. Taken with a SBIG ST-L-4K 3 CCD Camera]

M81, M82, NGC 3077, et al.

[M81, M82, NGC 3077 Galaxies. Taken with a SBIG ST-L-4K 3 CCD Camera]

Milky Way from Apollo Bay

[The Milky Way. Taken on a DSLR]

[The Great Orion Nebula (M42). Taken with a Pentax K200D]

Andromeda

[Andromeda. Taken with a Canon 350D.]

[The Rosetta Nebula. Taken with a Canon 350D]

[The Jellyfish Nebula. Taken with a SBIG STL-4020M]

Orion nebula (M42) 10/05/08

[The Orion Nebula. Take with a Canon 300D]

Eagle Nebula

[The Eagle Nebula.]

Messier 74

[Messier 74.]

M51 - The Whirlpool Galaxy

[The Whirpool Galaxy. Taken with a Nikon D70]

Other Astronomy Image Photography Resources:




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25 Responses to “Astrophotography: 13 Awesome Backyard Astronomy Photos”

  1. Vote +1Ade Martin
    Says:

    Astounding photographs. I always thought this quality was the province of Nat Geo. Well worth a Digg :-)

  2. Vote +1robert
    Says:

    can someone explain how it was possible to take those photos? Do you need a special lense?
    rob @ http://www.tinman.ie

  3. Vote +1Maverick S.
    Says:

    Beautiful!

  4. Vote +1Anthony Barba
    Says:

    amazing. wish I had the internet when I was a kid in the backyard with a telescope

  5. Vote +1Jame
    Says:

    Awesome!

  6. Vote +1admin
    Says:

    Glad you guys are enjoying the photos! Don’t forget to take a look at the Flickr pool – there are some breathtaking shots there.

  7. Vote +1Alan Riaso
    Says:

    I have a Canon 350d and would LOVE to learn how to take pics like this. Believe me I have no problem putting in the time and effort. I have tried many times to photograph the orion nebula but always end up with a purple blob with my 300mm/tripod/rc. :(

    The resolution these guys are getting is mind blowing.

    I am all over those primer/tutorial links. Thanks so much for this post!

  8. +2 Vote +1Web World
    Says:

    Cool, really good photos.

  9. Vote +1Dawid Michalczyk
    Says:

    Beautiful space photos. My favorite has always been the Andromeda galaxy.

  10. Vote +1Astrophotography: 13 Awesome Backyard Astronomy Photos | Our World...travelling by the seat of our pants....
    Says:

    [...] More… var addthis_pub = ”; var addthis_language = ‘en’;var addthis_options = ‘email, favorites, digg, delicious, myspace, google, facebook, reddit, live, more’; :Backyard, Photography, Space [...]

  11. Vote +1Deferred Fixed Annuity
    Says:

    I have no problem putting in the time and effort.

  12. Vote +1mulberrycat
    Says:

    Those pictures are mind boggling. What makes all the crazy colors?
    Thanks for posting.

  13. Vote +1eric
    Says:

    great set! One photo is mislabeled as Andromeda “Nebula”.

  14. Vote +1admin
    Says:

    @alan – glad you enjoyed. If you do a Google search, you should be able to find a few more tutorials on astrophotography.

    @mulberrycat – the colors are enhanced in the processing phase. My (poor) understanding of these astronomy photos is that the process assigns colors based on heat signature. Could be (very) wrong n that though.

    @eric – thanks for picking that up – I will fix that.

  15. Vote +1Mosca
    Says:

    @robert, yap… you would need something like a telescope instead of a traditional lens

  16. Vote +1Erik
    Says:

    Beautiful!!

  17. +2 Vote +1Cain
    Says:

    Wow, cheers for putting my Milky Way pic up here with the others. I have post on my blog on how I processed it if anyone is interested.

  18. Vote +1admin
    Says:

    @Cain – thanks for stopping by! Awesome work on that photo by the way. I have just edited the post to include a link to your post on photographing the Milky Way. Thanks for letting us know about it!

  19. Vote +1Ciencia y tecnología :: 100cia.com
    Says:

    [...] de lograr, con medios caseros, fotos tan bonitas como ésta. La web Light Stalking ofrece un tutorial sobre astro-fotografía y reúne a algunas de las fotos más espectaculares que pueden verse en Internet. Al final del [...]

  20. Vote +1Josh
    Says:

    Wow, that one shot of Andromeda taken with a Canon 350D is incredible! I never knew you could do so much with an entry-level DSLR

  21. Vote +1admin
    Says:

    @josh – check out some of the links to the tutorials – you might be pleasantly surprised. ;)

  22. Vote +1Some awesome astronomy photographs | iMod
    Says:

    [...] Absolutely incredible if you ask me! These stunning photographs were found on Light Stalkings. [...]

  23. Vote +1Tim
    Says:

    Just an FYI, the Skynews link (Starting Out in Astrophotography) at the end of the article has changed. It’s now located at http://www.skynews.ca/pages/astrophotography.html

    Great photos…one day I’ll be taking photos like these! ;-)

  24. Vote +1robert
    Says:

    can someone explain how it was possible to take those photos? Do you need a special lense?
    rob @ http://www.tinman.ie

  25. Vote +1urineone
    Says:

    superb

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