Astrophotography

Since millenia, humankind has been obsessed with the sky, the stars and all the celestial bodies. Much of this long-time obsession has been reflected in everything from art to literature to songs and folklore, and of course, development of scientific techniques to improve how we capture the beauty we see into images.

Also known as astronomical imaging, astrophotography, as any astro-enthusiast would know, deals with imaging areas of the night sky or specific celestial bodies or astronomical phenomena.

Though the first ever astronomical photograph was of the earth’s moon taken in 1847, technological developments throughout the nineteenth century made astrophotography all the more better in both quality and aesthetic. The secret has always been long-time exposure with cameras being able to capture a plethora of stars and nebulae and galaxies that our naked eyes could never hope to see.

Early on, astrophotography was quite important for classifying stars and galaxies and to make constellation maps, etc, but as of recent times, it mostly encompasses way more advanced image sensors that contribute to specific areas of scientific research. In fact, today when one hears astrophotography, one usually thinks of amateur astrophotography specifically, with more and more astro-enthusiasts finding it easier to capture the sky with their phones or easily accessible equipment.

In such an enthusiastic world for astrophotographers, there is no lack of resources to learn astrophotography by oneself. The internet has a plethora of guides for beginners: multiple subreddits exist for everything from r/astrophotography to r/telescopes and much else in between. You can also find tutorials on image processing and stacking by experts who can give advice on all kinds of astrophotography.

Check out the following useful sources and related reading:
• Lonely Speck
• Reddit
• Astropipp
• autostakkert

Astrophotography for a living

Doing astrophotography professionally is a huge commitment because it is mostly freelancing in the beginning. It is also very respectable because of how it is one of the primary ways the common man gets involved with the universe. Depending on the subject of interest, astrophotography is of many categories: the Solar System; Deep Space Objects (DSO); Wide field Astrophotography and Time-lapse Astrophotography. You would be working in remote locations to avoid light pollution and depending on your target, it may take about a few minutes to over a day to get the work done. Now this doesn't mean you’ll be completely free on cloudy days or when there's something wrong with your equipment. You would be using those days to plan out your next site, or to digitally process and stack the images you have already taken. \

Prerequisite knowledge

Added to all the advice and courses you can find online, you would also be required to have a very deep and technical knowledge of the different kinds of sensors, telescopes and cameras for the various kinds of targets. Your equipment will also be available in a range of prices so it’s always best to know a minimum about all of the different brands and the basic optic techniques each employs.
If you venture into the world of professional astrophotography, you will be earning money primarily from submitting your world to researchers and journals as well as artists who would be keen on printing them for the general public.
On that note: check out this gallery of astrophotography where you can view some of the world’s monuments and landmarks against a background of brilliant space images Click to see the Gallery