10 Astrophotography Tips to Shoot Photos of the Night Sky

Whether this is your first visit to Space Tourism Guide, or you’ve been reading along as we share space tourism tips around the world, you’ve probably noticed: we almost always try to provide tips on how to document your experiences. To that end, we’ve put together one of the most-requested guides full of astrophotography tips to help you capture the night sky in all its glory.

In the age of digital photography, Instagram, and the desire to capture everything, it’s important to document your stargazing trip, aurora experience, or finally seeing your first rocket launch. More than your average vacation selfie or snapshot, some of these space tourism experiences require a little extra work to capture in a great picture.

Below, you’ll find my best advice on getting started shooting photos of the night sky; in the end, these astrophotography tips will get you started and then all you need to do is practice, practice, practice. Read to learn the basics so you can get out there and shoot incredible starry skies? Let’s get right to it!

This post was originally published in May 2018, and was updated most recently in July 2022.

The Basis: Gear, Setup & Composition

It might seem odd, but it’s almost more important that you have the right gear and understand the photo you’re trying to shoot than getting your astrophotography settings 100% right. That’s why our list of astrophotography tips actually starts with gear – not settings.

Before you head out to try and capture amazing astrophotography, start with these tips that cover the astrophotography gear you need to make it a successful trip.

Tip #1. Use a Tripod

You may think it’s enough to buy a great camera and set the right settings. When it comes to astrophotography, you’ll need a tripod if you want the kind of crisp, clear photos you’ve seen elsewhere.

At shutter speeds slower than 1/60, the human heartbeat causes enough small movements that hand-held shooting will start to make your star or moon photos look blurry. Therefore, you’ll need a good tripod to mount your camera and reduce that movement.

This doesn’t mean you have to invest in a super hefty or heavy tripod. For example, this 50″ lightweight aluminum tripod is a great travel option for less than $20; in windy shooting conditions, you can use the tripod bag loaded with rocks to hang from the center support to increase stability.

Tip #2. Trigger the Shutter with a Release Cable or Remote

Just as your heartbeat can affect the clarity and sharpness of your photos, the action of pressing and releasing the shutter on your camera can do the same.

For this reason, I recommend using a shutter release cable or remote to further reduce movement that might mess up your photos. There are some great options that can plug right into your camera or pair via Bluetooth so that you can control your camera without needing to touch it at all.

If your budget is a bit tight or you just don’t want to invest in or carry additional gear, get familiar with the timer settings on your camera. You can set up a 3- or 10-second delay on your shutter then step away from the setup while the photo is shot.

Tip #3. Frame the Night Sky Using the Foreground

A photograph of a sky full of stars is actually not as compelling as you might imagine. While our eyes have great peripheral vision and pick up a lot of context from the world around us while stargazing, our cameras can only see what we point them at. If you shoot straight up or include only the sky in your astrophotographs, you’ll end up with a photo of white/red/blue dots on a black background.

Instead, use the world around you to frame the sky. Even a silhouette can become a compelling point of reference for a night sky photo. Use mountains, landscapes, trees, or other features, and your stars will suddenly seem more impressive.

You may find yourself in a place where there’s not much interesting scenery around. If that’s the case, try putting yourself in the photo and triggering the shutter with your remote or a timer. Your silhouette can make the picture even more interesting and personal.

Tip #4. Use Flight Paths & Satellites to Your Advantage

For those of us who live in cities, it’s hard to realize how much moves in the night sky each night.

If you’ve traveled to somewhere cool like Joshua Tree National Park or even just the outskirts of your hometown, you’ll suddenly see: there are always things moving in the night sky. Your astrophotography instincts will tell you that the streak of light produced by airplanes, satellites, and even the International Space Station passing overhead can mess up a great photo.

But that doesn’t necessarily have to be the case. You can try and use these moving objects to your advantage. Creatively speaking, they may be an interesting element to include in your picture. Spend a few minutes before you start shooting to get a sense of flight paths and any satellites you see and set up your shot to include them in your picture.

If you want to avoid airplane or satellite trails in your photos, try heading out to your astrophotography spot a night early. Spend 15-30 minutes stargazing and watching the sky. This way you’ll get a sense of what will likely be passing overhead when you come back for your photo shoot.

Tip #5. Bring Extra Batteries

It’s easy to overlook the most important thing you’ll need to bring in order to shoot astrophotography: batteries! Cold weather and long exposure times can drain your camera batteries quickly, so take my advice and pack extra batteries whenever you’re heading out to shoot the stars.

As a rule of thumb, you should carry a minimum of 3 charged batteries at all times if you’re headed out for a night shoot. It’s common to spend up to two hours shooting, and you can easily burn through that many depending on the air temperature and length of your exposures.

Exposure: Capturing the Astrophoto You Want

To capture a breathtaking photo, it’s more than just point-and-shooting. This is especially true in a technically complex situation like astrophotography. The foundation of astrophotography settings includes shooting in manual mode at all times. If you don’t understand how to control the manual mode settings on your camera, be sure to check the manual before you set out to shoot photos. Consider that a bonus on this list of astrophotography tips (Tip #5.5. Shoot in Manual, Keeping Tips #6-9 in Mind).

If you’re not familiar with the exposure triangle, check out this helpful resource from the popular photography website Fstoppers. It explains that in all photos, you must balance the shutter speed, aperture, and ISO to capture the right amount of light for the right amount of time.

When you reduce the light in astrophotography, it’s even more imperative that you understand how changing each of these variables will affect your photos. Read on to learn some quick tips about each, plus how to focus your camera for night photography.

Tip #6. Control Your Shutter to Capture the Stars

Some astrophotographers love star trails; others want to know how to capture sharp stars in photos, captured in a single moment. Depending on your preferences, adjust your shutter speed. Here are some tips:

• If you want sharp, clear stars in your astrophotos, keep your shutter speed to 15 seconds or shorter. To make sure you capture enough light to see anything at all, you’ll need a lower aperture (Tip #6) and higher ISO (Tip #7).
• If you want star trails, opt for a longer shutter speed; you can start to see star trails at 30-second exposures, but this also depends on your aperture, ISO, and the direction you’re pointing in the sky. At this 30-second sweet spot, you’ll start to capture small star trails in your photos.

If y star trails photography is your thing, make sure you check out Petapixel. This popular photography blog has a great resource for getting the kind of stair trails you see in the above photo. Most of the long stair trail photos are composite photos – and this post shows you exactly how to do them including post-production (Tip #10).

Tip #7. Open Your Aperture as Wide as Possible

Depending on the lens(es) you’re shooting with, it’s generally a good rule of thumb to open up your aperture as wide as possible to capture more light. Another way of saying this is that you want your F-stop to be as low a number as possible.

In most cases, an F-stop of 1.8-2.8 will be a good range for astrophotography. If your lens doesn’t go that low, you’ll need to set your ISO higher to make up the difference and capture more light.

If you’re an amateur photographer, there’s a high chance your kit lens doesn’t have the right aperture range. There’s no need to despair, though. You’ll still be able to shoot astrophotography. Roughly speaking, you can compensate with a longer shutter speed and higher ISO and still get some great shots.

Tip #8. Understand How High Your ISO Can Go Without Noise

The above picture has a lot going on, doesn’t it? The sky seems to be almost full of stars and color – way more than we can see with our eyes while stargazing.

This is likely because the photo was shot with a ‘high’ ISO, probably 6400 or higher, to capture the cloudy look of the Milky Way. Historically, ISO was a standardized measure of the sensitivity of your film; in the era of digital cameras, it means how sensitive your camera’s sensor is.

The higher your ISO, the more ‘noise’ you’ll see in your pictures. When it comes to astrophotography, noise can look a lot like the photo above: color in the sky, cloudiness, and what sort of looks like stars everywhere. If this is the effect you’re going for, crank up the ISO. If you want darker skies, try setting your ISO lower.

I’d also like to point out that, as the third part of the exposure triangle, ISO is an important factor that many amateur photographers overlook. If you’re learning to shoot astrophotography, try leaving your shutter speed and aperture the same and shooting photos at different levels of ISO. You’ll see how much difference changing this setting can have!

Tip #9. Step Your Focus Back from Infinity

You might think that because you’re shooting literally millions of light-years into the distance, your focus should be set to infinity. Well, this is often not the best move.

Instead, try this. Set your focus to infinity (as far as it will focus into the distance), then bring the focal point just a little bit back. This can help improve the clarity of your photos in a way you may not notice until post-production.

If possible, try setting up your shot and focus during the daytime. Especially if you’re using a feature like a tree or rock formation in the foreground, you’ll ensure they are crisp and clear and the stars are too.

Final Steps: What Happens After You Shoot

For many amateur photographers, we take a photo and then assume our work is done – a great photo was great from the moment it was taken, right?

Turns out that post-production is an important part of astrophotography. In this final of our astrophotography tips, learn more about why post-production is one of the key night sky photography tips.

Tip #10. Finalize Your Work in Post-Production

Most people don’t realize how much work goes into making a great photograph in post-production. This is the last not-so-secret of our astrophotography tips you need to know to get photos like the one in this post.

Back in the days of film, this meant how the photographer worked in a dark room to properly develop and create prints from their film. Now, it means understanding software like Adobe Lightroom and using that software to help improve the quality of your raw photos. For example, when creating star trail photos, you’ll almost certainly need to do post-production and create a composite image.

If you don’t use any software for post-production of your photos, now’s the time. It will help your astrophotos be even more spectacular.

Recommended Astrophotography Gear

Here is a short list of the products we’ve recommended in this post, as well as others we use here at Space Tourism Guide for our own astrophotography.

• Astrophotography Camera: The Sony A6000 is a popular and high-performing option, but I have an entire list of great astrophotography cameras.
• Travel-Friendly Tripod: You want something sturdy; I use a Rangers tripod – and this Chinese knockoff on Amazon is a good alternative.
• Optional Lenses: Your lens depends on which camera you choose. The Sony A6000 comes with a standard 16-50mm 3.5-5.6 kit lens, which will do fine for astrophotography. If you want additional options, the 35mm 1.8 wide angle lens is good – but lower focal length/lower aperture lenses are what you need, no matter what you choose.

Have other questions about these astrophotography tips or night sky photography tips? Let me know in the comments.

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