About the Astrophotographer

Welcome to my corner of the universe. I'm D34thm0u53, an amateur astrophotographer from Brisbane, Australia,

My Journey

What started as a casual interest in widefield star photos after watching my photographer father try to get a decent photo of the moon, evolved into a vast time and money sink.

Each image represents hours of planning, precise tracking, post-processing, and re-imaging to reveal the hidden details of nebulae, galaxies, and star clusters.

Equipment & Techniques

While astrophotography does not require specialized equipment [ Proof | More ], it certainly does become easier with gear designed for the hobby, along with techniques learned over the years. Here's what makes these images possible:

The Process

Each image is the result of multiple hours of exposure time, often spread across several nights. The process includes, but is not limited to:

Planning: Using software (typically Stellarium) to determine the best imaging targets for a given night and location. The target of choice for a night may be impacted by any combination of: the current Moon phase, weather, Horizon (Damn you trees!), and the apparent position of the target due to the season.

Capture: Long exposure imaging sessions, typically aiming for 6-12 hours per target, with each frame typically being 120-500 seconds in duration. The camera and telescope are mounted on a tracking mount to move and keep the stars perfectly aligned within the frame.

Processing: Careful calibration (Dark Frames, Flat Frames), alignment, and enhancement to reveal the colors and structures hidden in the dark of night.

Capture Again: It doesn't matter how hard you plan, things go wrong and sometimes you don't find out until you load up the images that you need to start again.

Philosophy

This gallery is designed with a simple philosophy: Each visitor sees each image only once. Like looking through a telescope eyepiece, each viewing is a unique moment of discovery.

There is no going back.