All articles tagged with #astrophotography
New Zealand-based astrophotographer Tom Rae rappelled about 100 meters into a glow‑worm–lit cave to capture a long‑exposure, star‑tracked night‑sky panorama that won first place in the Capture the Dark 2026 contest's Creatures of the Night category; the shot was filmed, and Rae spoke of challenging humidity and cave lighting.
Europe’s first total solar eclipse in decades occurred on Aug 12, 2026, with the path of totality crossing Greenland, Iceland, Spain and Portugal. Spain witnessed its mainland’s first total eclipse since 1905. Photographers shared striking images—including moments over historic sites like Burgos’ Frías Castle—and videos across social media, highlighting the continent’s rare celestial event.
DarkSky International announced the Capture the Dark 2026 winners, a record-setting nighttime photography contest with 31 winning images across nine categories from photographers in more than 30 countries, highlighting the beauty of dark skies while underscoring the increasing impact of light pollution.
The July full Buck Moon lit up skies around the world on July 29, 2026, with a gallery of striking photos from Türkiye, Canada, the U.S. and Australia, including red-hued scenes from wildfire smoke; Space.com also flags upcoming sky events (the August 12 total solar eclipse and a late-month lunar eclipse) and offers tips on astrophotography gear and viewing opportunities.
Live Science outlines seven practical approaches to photographing the August 12, 2026 total solar eclipse, ranging from souvenir shots through eclipse glasses on a phone to wide-angle landscapes, crescent-sun projections, close-up corona with telephoto lenses, and both full-sequence and wide-angle sequence techniques, all with emphasis on solar safety and rehearsal/gear options.
Astrophotographer AJ Smadi captured a daytime image of the International Space Station passing Venus near Seattle on July 18, 2026, using a 9.25-inch Celestron SCT and a ZWO ASI662MC with UV/IR filters. The feat, achieved in daylight with careful planning, follows Smadi’s earlier success and echoes NASA’s recognition of his work in Astronomy Picture of the Day, highlighting how challenging and rare it is to photograph these two celestial bodies side-by-side in daylight.
Photographer AJ Smadi captured the second-ever image of Venus and the International Space Station in one frame, from Edmonds, WA. The rare alignment was achieved by stacking 10 frames shot at 1/150 s as the ISS zipped by at 7.5 km/s; Venus and the ISS appear similar in size due to perspective, despite the 135 million km distance. The setup included a 9.25-inch Celestron SCT with a 2350 mm focal length and a ZWO ASI662MC camera with a UV/IR filter.
Australia and beyond are represented in the 2026 David Malin astrophotography awards, led by The Lunar Apennines on the Moon as the Overall and Solar System winner, with a gallery of Deep Sky, Nightscapes, and Wide-Field images plus honourable mentions—from auroras to nebulae and star clusters—captured by amateur photographers.
CNET tests two budget smart telescopes—the Dwarf Mini and the ZWO Seestar S30 ($399 each)—finding that their compact design, built‑in cameras, and app controls lower entry barriers for astrophotography. The Dwarf Mini is lighter and quickest to set up and excels at sun and moon shots and wildlife, while the Seestar S30 includes more accessories, stronger daytime tracking, and better post‑processing; in side‑by‑side field tests (sun, moon, Arcturus, Pinwheel Galaxy, landscape timelapse, pelicans) both require stacking and occasional compromises on image quality. Overall, there’s no clear winner: pick based on whether portability or tracking/gear matters more, as both are solid gateways into affordable astrophotography.
To mark JWST’s fourth birthday, the piece curates 25 images from the James Webb Space Telescope that merge scientific insight with beauty—from planetary closeups of Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune to iconic deep-field and gravitationally lensed views like SMACS 0723 and SDSS J1226+2152—showcasing Webb’s infrared capabilities (MIRI and NIRCam) and its power to reveal dusty star-forming regions and the universe’s earliest galaxies.
June's Strawberry Moon—the year's lowest-hanging full moon for Northern Hemisphere observers—rose low in the southeast and lit up skies worldwide, yielding standout photos from locations like New York's Empire State Building, Cape Sounion in Greece, and Meishan and Qingzhou in China, among others; the piece highlights top images and notes the next full Moon, Buck Moon, on July 29.
Astrophotographer Efrain Morales captured amateur footage of China's Tiangong space station crossing the Moon's Tycho Crater from Puerto Rico on May 29 at 11:33 p.m. EDT, showing Tiangong's silhouette and solar panels as it streaked across the lunar disk near Tycho. Tiangong comprises the Tianhe core module with the Wentian and Mengtian laboratory modules and is crewed by Shenzhou 23 astronauts Zhu Yangzhu, Zhang Zhiyuan and Lai Ka-ying.
An artist-musician attached a modified 1998 Game Boy Camera to Mount Wilson Observatory's 60-inch telescope using a 3D-printed C‑Mount adapter and eyepiece adapters, effectively turning the telescope into a roughly 730,000mm-long lens (about 24,384mm equivalent) to photograph Jupiter after a Moon shot proved too close. The shot revealed Jupiter’s bands and limb, and the image was printed on a Game Boy printer. The creator, Chris Graue, is known for past game‑console hacks and plans to continue experimenting during his Alaska tour with Lo(u)ser.
Space photographer Soumyadeep Mukherjee compiled a 30-image collage titled “Closer, Everyday,” capturing the apparent approach of Venus and Jupiter in Kolkata’s western sky from May 11 to June 9, using a Nikon Z6II and Sigma 50mm lens across civil, nautical, and astronomical twilight. The composite shows the two planets moving closer in Earth’s sky, culminating in a near-conjunction on June 9 (less than 2 degrees apart), while acknowledging that Venus is actually receding in three-dimensional space. The piece highlights the consistent gear and timing across days and suggests readers explore astrophotography gear and skywatching opportunities.
June is a prime time in the Northern Hemisphere to shoot the Milky Way as the galaxy’s bright core climbs into the southeastern sky around 11:30 p.m. Local viewing windows are best between the last-quarter moon around June 8 and the days after the new moon around June 14, with dark skies crucial. Use a full‑frame DSLR/mirrorless with RAW, a sturdy tripod, and a wide lens (14–24 mm); set about f/2.8, ISO 3200–6400, and 10–25 second exposures, then manually focus and post‑process for contrast and color. Don’t forget compelling foregrounds to add depth, and consider southern destinations in July–September as the Milky Way moves across the sky.