In this series of articles I try to answer the question "How do you make these photographs?" which I am often being asked. Because of the complexity I thought perhaps it was a good idea to write a series of articles covering the topic. There are a quite huge amount of material available on the net explaining the theories behind, so I decided to provide a step-by-step description of what I do, and at each step I will explain the reason why I do it in that way. My main focus in astrophotography is deep-sky imaging, being the field I feel to have enough experience to write about. Although Solar System or planetary imaging is another area that could be of common interest, I do not have yet enough experience in it to be the proper person to give description about.

In this series of articles I try to answer the question "How do you make these photographs?" which I am often being asked. Because of the complexity I thought perhaps it was a good idea to write a series of articles covering the topic. There are a quite huge amount of material available on the net explaining the theories behind, so I decided to provide a step-by-step description of what I do, and at each step I will explain the reason why I do it in that way. My main focus in astrophotography is deep-sky imaging, being the field I feel to have enough experience to write about. Although Solar System or planetary imaging is another area that could be of common interest, I do not have yet enough experience in it to be the proper person to give description about.

Anyone who has ever taken a photograph knows the importance of focusing. The image projected by the objective gets sharp at a certain distance behind the objective. This distance depends on the focal length of the objective and the distance between the objective and the subject. The device used for recording the image -be it traditional photo-emulsion or digital sensor- should be positioned exactly in the appropriate distance from the objective, if proper image sharpness is required. There are numerous tools and aids in photography that helps finding the proper distance, like frosted glass, focusing screen or up to date auto focus systems. But what's the case with astrophotography?