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I've always enjoyed astrophotography but it was only after this Christmas, when my wife gave my a beautiful telescope that was able to think of actually doing something on the field so, while London is completely overcast and nothing can be seen on the outer world, I'm trying to catch up with reading, here are some entry level links that I've read over the last few days, I hope they are useful to you and if you have reading suggestions, please leave them in the comments.

The first thing that will come to mind to most people would be DLSR photography, that was my first thought too and I came into this DSLR Astrophotography tutorial.


Now, if you're thinking on the quality side of things, probably webcam astrophotography wouldn't be the first thought in your mind, however I came to think it differently after a quick chat with ROG Astronomer Tony Sizer who delighted me with an inspiring chat in answer to my rather mundane questions about camera fits into telescopes.

It seems you can actually get some quality pictures from webcams, because you can do a series of quick shots, each of which will have only a faint image, but a precise one, and they can be combined together into a properly exposed one. If you have tried to take a picture of the sky for more than a split second and found it out motion blurred, then you know that a quick shot (or a motordrive for the telescope, which can be expensive) is very welcome.

Well, this Webcam Astrophotography Tutorial seems to cover the subject, I may just reuse the webcam I bought for the fisheye mount.

Also by recommendation of astronomer Tony Sizer, if you live in west London, you may find interesting to get in touch with the West Of London Astronomical Society (WOLAS) and if you are near London you may want to go to the Astrofest, as astronomy show/conference in February 2010.

Lastly, if you can read portuguese, Astroimagem website will have tutorials on techniques and instrumentation.

Have fun, and feel free to add suggestions to the comments.