Videos

Jump to Category: Astrophotography tips | Equipment | Image Processing | Imaging Session | Lucky Imaging | Stacking | Timelapse | Tour |

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Astrophotography tips 🔝

Comets don't have the same predictable orbits as planets and travel at different rates, so how are long imaging sessions even possible? Just in time for the close approach of the green comet C/2022 E3 (ZTF), learn how to use the Orbitals plugin to track comets using N.I.N.A. software.
02 Feb 2023
How to track a comet using N.I.N.A. software
Your guide scope doesn't have to be perfectly aligned with your primary scope. However, if the alignment is close enough, guide scopes usually have a wider field of view making it easier to find targets and reuse that scope as a finder scope. See how I prepare my rig during the day for a successful nighttime run.
07 Jan 2023
Align your guidescope by day and use as finder scope at night
Do you have the perfect setup for your image train, but adding a filter throws everything off? You might be surprised how a simple little adapter enables you to insert a filter without changing the length of your backfocus!
06 Jan 2023
Add a filter without changing backfocus
Have your adapters or extensions bound together so you can't get them loose? Use this simple tool many people have never heard of to fix it.
05 Jan 2023
Unbind a stuck adapter or extension
 

Equipment 🔝

The Star Adventurer Mini, or SAM, is a portable system that attaches to your tripod and camera to allow you to take extremely long (such as 60 seconds to 5 minutes) exposures without star trails. In this video I explain how it works, show you how to set it up, provide examples and share tips like using your own software and polar alignment.
12 Dec 2021
Complete guide to Star Adventurer Mini (S.A.M.)
It was a rare night in the Pacific Northwest. The forecast predicted a few hours of clear skies. With no optical tube assembly (OTA), I decided to test drive my new Celestron CGEM-II mount with my Sony Alpha 6300. I also filmed some time lapse with my ZWO ASI120MM-S. This is the true story of what happened.
07 Dec 2021
First Light with my CGEM-II Celestron Mount
 

Image Processing 🔝

Do you have the same issue that I did? Despite doing things like splitting out stars to align separately, you always end up with star streaks. I finally figured out the simple, single step to do between star alignment and comet alignment that makes all the difference and produces streak-free comets for me every time (without having to split the lights). This video walks through the full end-to-end of processing comets in PixInsight.
02 Feb 2023
How to Process a Comet in PixInsight
Learn exactly what bias, dark, flat, and dark flats frames are, why they are important, and how to take them in this short video with visual demonstrations of the results.
01 Nov 2022
Calibration explained in less than 4 minutes
 

Imaging Session 🔝

Gear: Svbony sv503 70ED 70mm (420mm f/7 or 336mm f/5 with reducer) doublet refractor, Sony Alpha 6300 mirrorless camera, assorted Samyang manual focus lenses, Sky Watcher Star Adventurer GTi 'go to' mount, Manfrotto tripod. Targets: Milky Way, Moon, SpaceX Crew-5 Dragon trunk, M13, Orion constellation, Venus, and Antares region with part of Rho Ophiuchi.
05 May 2023
Colorado Springs 2023: Astrophotography on the road
Stellina, an automated observation station that makes astrophotography easy for everyone, added a new mode for mosaics. I tested it on a wide Andromeda Galaxy and large Pleiades shot. Here's how it turned out!
17 Dec 2022
Testing Stellina's new 'Covalens' automated mosaic mode
On December 14th I pointed my telescope to the sky. I captured Mars, Jupiter, and the moon with my planetary QHY5III462C before I switched to the deep sky ASI294MC Pro. After setting up an advanced script in N.I.N.A., I let it run all night and used the results to create my best picture of the Crab Nebula to date. It's all documented including setting up and balancing my rig.
17 Dec 2022
Imaging M1 (and Mars, Jupiter, and the Moon)
Join me for a night of viewing. I observed several nebulae (the Iris Nebula, the Dumbbell Nebula, and the Eagle Nebula) and the moon all night until 3am when the planets Saturn, Mars, and Jupiter appeared in that order.
22 May 2022
May 21, 2022 - planets, nebulae, and more
 

Lucky Imaging 🔝

This is a flow for planetary processing for those of you who don't want to use RegiStax. I show how to use deconvolution and multiscale linear transformations to sharpen solar system-based images.
29 Sep 2022
Planetary processing with PixInsight (and NO Registax)
Learn how to use ImageContainer, ProcessContainer, and FFTRegistration to stack planetary images produced by Stellina. With a guest appearance from Pierre, my parrot.
26 Aug 2021
How to Process Planets from Stellina in PixInsight with Bulk Operations
 

Stacking 🔝

Using the same set of data and the default, auto-recommended settings for each program, I stacked a series of images (including lights, darks, flats, and dark flats) using several major free and commercial applications including Astrometric Stacking Program (ASTAP), ASI DeepStack, AstroPixel Processor (APP), Deep Sky Stacker (DSS) and PixInsight. I was surprised by the results and may have a new favorite!
20 Jun 2022
Best astrophotography stacking software
Simple tutorial showing how to take nonlinear images and register/stack them to improve the detail. Workflow uses the moon captured by my Stellina with seven shots. Blink, FFTRegistration script, dynamic crop, multiscale linear transform and curves transformation.
17 Apr 2021
Stacking Nonlinear Images (the Moon) with PixInsight
 

Timelapse 🔝

Some footage of a lightning storm I captured in Monroe, WA on May 16, 2023.
16 May 2023
A striking view: lightning in the Pacific Northwest
I captured this video at 2:53am on April 27, 2023 in Colorado Springs. On March 12, 2023 the joint NASA and SpaceX Crew-5 Dragon mission jettisoned a cylinder for storage called the 'trunk' before return to Earth. This video shows the trunk breaking up on an uncontrolled re-entry a month later.
27 Apr 2023
NASA SpaceX Crew-5 Dragon trunk module reentry
Timelapse of night sky including footage of 50,000-year green comet C/2022 E3 (ZTF).
30 Jan 2023
Night of the Comet
Footage from my imaging sessions with comet C/2022 E3 (ZTF) using a 336mm and a 1645mm scope. Live observations of a green comet that was last seen 50,000 years ago: Comet C/2022 E3 (ZTF).
22 Jan 2023
Live observations of green comet C/2022 E3 (ZTF)
The bright moon can't quite overpower the Pleiades, but it's the clouds that end up with the last word in this timelapse.
20 Nov 2022
Seven Sisters and Luna on a Cloudy Night
A timelapse look at the Pleiades, the double cluster in Perseus, Mars, and other winter sky objects. Taken with a Sony Alpha 6300 and a Samyang 12mm MF f/2 lens on a Sky Watcher Star Adventurer GTi.
20 Nov 2022
Celestial Spinner
The footage of Orion I used to create the full Orion image from Grand Cayman.
28 Oct 2022
Orion Rising
 

Tour 🔝

Collage of planets, galaxies, nebulae, and more that I captured in 2022. From Saturn and Andromeda to Thor's Helmet and the Milky Way.
20 Dec 2022
My best space pictures taken in 2022
My adventures in Grand Cayman photographing Mars, the Pleiades, Cassiopeia, Cygnus, Orion, M31: the Andromeda Galaxy and M33: the Triangulum Galaxy using my Sony Alpha 6300 mirrorless camera with 12mm and 50mm Samyang lenses, the Svbony sv503 70ED 420mm doublet refractor, and using the Sky Watcher Star Adventurer GTi mount.
25 Oct 2022
The Cayman Collection (behind the scenes)
A visual tour of Orion and nearby deep sky objects Aldebaran, Mars, and the Pleiades. From 12mm wide field shots of the night sky to 1645mm ultra close-ups of nebulae, this journey ties some of my favorite images together and shows just how interconnected objects in space can be. Includes shots of M42: the Great Orion Nebula, M43: de Mairan's Nebula, NGC1977 The Running Man Nebula, NGC2024 The Flame Nebula, NGC2023, IC434 The Horsehead Nebula, M45: The Pleiades, Mars, Aldebaran, Betelgeuse and Rigel.
12 Jan 2022
A visit with Orion