Introduction to Astrophotography: How to Get Started

So you want to take incredible pictures of the night sky but don’t know where to start? In this presentation, we will go through the basics of astrophotography, explaining how to take your very first photo of the stars, the Milky Way, or even deep-sky objects like galaxies or nebulae. We'll cover everything from beginner telescope/lens and camera recommendations to image processing tips to help you get the most out of your photos.

About the presenter: Sergey Trudolyubov is a former professional astrophysicist and an avid amateur astronomer and astrophotographer living in Los Alamos, NM. After receiving his Ph.D. in astrophysics from Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology and Russian Space Research Institute he worked in the field of high energy astrophysics at LANL and the University of California. Although he had been processing and analyzing scientific astronomical data for years, he has always been excited about obtaining the data himself using amateur telescopes and imaging cameras. Since getting his first telescope as a kid, he’s been doing deep sky imaging first using film and, after a long hiatus, digital cameras and astronomical CCD and CMOS cameras. You can find his astrophotography work on Astrobin site: https://www.astrobin.com/users/strudolyubov/ and some of his images featured in Astronomy magazine. 

Events in the planetarium are not recommended for children under age 4.

Admission: $8/adult; $6/child; $20/family

Image caption: "Sunflower Galaxy (Messier 63). Image by Sergey Trudolyubov.