Most of the photos were taken in light-polluted areas around England and The Netherlands. They were taken with a either a DSLR and a tripod, or a DSLR and telescope. This will be split into 2 main parts; how I did horizon astrophotography and how I did deep-sky astrophotography. 

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HORIZON ASTROPHOTOGRAPHY: 

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Step 1 was determining what I was going to shoot and finding where I was going to take the photo. I would need to think about if I wanted to shoot a subject, like a tree or a horizon, or if I just wanted to shoot the Milky-way. 

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Step 2 was finding a good time to take the photos. I would need to consider the weather conditions, temperatures, cloudiness, and external yet important factors. These external factors like if the moon was up and above around 45% would significantly impact the photos I would be able to take. I took many of the images later in the months (that being around the 25th - 4th) due to the moon brightness being lowest. 

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Step 3 was getting the equipment outside where I needed it to be and then trying a lot of trial and error. Because it would oftentimes be dark in the area already, I would need to take several photos to get the perspective and angle I wanted. 

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Step 4 was setting the correct camera-settings. Depending on your camera and its lens, several considerations should be taken into account when shooting your images. Firstly, the ISO should be around either 1600, 3200, or 6400 depending on how bright you want your images to be. These settings can oftentimes increase the extent of light-pollution in the image - making it a lot brighter when using higher ISO settings. Secondly, the correct exposure time in each of the images would need to be set depending on the camera lens being used. The shot would need to be at-least 5 seconds long to capture some detail, but not be too long to show star-blur. I found that 17 seconds was a good time for the exposures. 

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Step 5 was 'stacking' and editing the photos. Photos from the camera always look slightly red, and don't show a lot of colour at all. Stacking reduces the amount of noise within the image and oftentimes makes it look more natural. Editing would bring out the colour of the shots, and give it this dark blue and black colour. No artificial colours should be added to the photos in the editing stage as it oftentimes makes it look very unnatural and unrealistic. 

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DEEP-SKY ASTROPHOTOGRAPHY: 

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Step 1, 2, 3, and 4 listed above were done in the deep-sky photography aspect of this project. To a certain extent, horizon and deep-sky photography are very similar in terms of setting up and using the camera, yet one does require quite a lot more skill and effort. I'll list all the features and techniques I used to photograph stars with a telescope. 

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1. Polar Alignment 

To put it in the simplest terms; in order to get stars in the photos to actually look like stars in the exposures taken, you need to 'track' them. The reason for this is that they look like they are constantly moving around an observer on earth - which in this case is us. Now they don't actually move, we do. The earth is rotating at very fast speeds and so technically speaking, we are moving around them. We can't see this effect whilst it's happening as to us the stars are just static little dots in the sky, but to a camera that's very different. As the camera takes in light during its exposures, it'll keep taking in the light of the stars even when they are moving. This result leads to this 'trail' or 'star blur' which can be more closely observed           .  There's really only one main option to stop this effect from happening and your photos to look sharp; Polar Alignment. This is basically looking through the scope found within the mount the telescope is one, and perfectly aligning the North Celestial Pole with the telescope. This is required to be near-perfect in order for the telescope to constantly point north, essential for the 'tracking' feature of the mount. Why face north? Everything rotates around that specific area, so if the telescope mount knows exactly where it should 'follow' or 'track', it'll track the movement of the stars. It might be a little confusing to get your head around so here are some excellent videos explaining this topic in more detail. 

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2. Trial -- > Error --> Trial --> Error --> Trial --> Success

Even though many steps in the sub-heading were skipped, it gives you the basic idea of this hobby. If something doesn't work, which will most likely happen, you need to keep trying. Not just motivation in terms of going outside in the cold and taking the photos, but also taking the photo you want. I set standards which were quite high, and only through the constant perseverance and motivation would it be possible to go above them. If a technique, piece of equipment, skill, idea, or expectation just doesn't work, that's not a reason to just give up on it. It took a while but I realised that after constant practice and repetition of things, I got closer and closer to my expectations. After getting a 128GB SD card (RAW or TIFF files are quite large), which is now full, I have taken over 1200+ photos, exposures, test shots, failed shots, or other stacking images I have around 18 final photos. 

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My Equipment: 

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Horizon AP: 

- Canon 2OOD with stock lens 

- Simple1 meter tripod 

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Deep-Sky AP: 

- Canon 200D

- HEQ5 PRO

- Skywatcher 130 PDS

- Coma Corrector 

- Laptop 

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UPDATED (29/05/2020)

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DEEP-SKY ASTROPHOTOGRAPHY SET UP

- ASI 1600MM PRO COOLED (MONOCHROME CCD)

- 4 L, R, G, B FILTERS

- HEQ5 PRO

- SKYWATCHER 130PDS

- SKYWATCHER APLANATIC COMA CORRECTOR

- DEW HEATER 

- LAPTOP

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UPDATED (02/02/2023)

- New telescope --> Skywatcher ED80 

 & waiting for better weather!

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If your wondering what a monochrome camera is: 

This camera shoots in black and white, yet compared to other colour cameras, it collects 3X as much light. (light wave lengths are registered most in its highest frequencies; black and white). Through specific RGB (RED, GREEN, BLUE) filters the camera picks up the specific wavelengths of light (colours). 

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