Photograph the stars from the comfort of your own computer…

Photograph the stars from the comfort of your own computer…

As many of you already know, I do like to mix computing with other things, cycling, astronomy etc. Well, this month we are going to have a look into the perplexing world of astro photography!

Ordinarily you would need a lot of expensive equipment to take pictures of the big wide universe around us but now with a new website its all possible now from without even venturing outside.

https://telescope.live is a subscription service that allows you to use their telescopes, located all over the world, to take images and using various filters and then download them to your own computer for processing and finalising. This is a great way to get into astro photography and to experience the whole process of taking images, downloading the .FITS files, stacking, stretching and processing the images to create an end result that is (hopefully) a stunning photograph.

If you’d like to have a look at what is possible then there is a great video available at www.youtube.com/watch?v=eNT6FFQ2pn4 that demonstrates not only the basics of how telescope.live works but also gives a great overview on how to process images. Of course, if you decide that you want to give it a go yourself then I warn you there are hours of frustration ahead of you BUT once you produce your first finished image there is a real sense of achievement in creating something from scratch that will amaze your friends and family.

Once you sign up (free by the way) you’re given a free month of the “silver” package, this allows you to take up to 5 photographs of any target you fancy, at the end of the month you can continue your subscription at just 21€ a month or even drop down to the bronze subscription at just 4€ a month – the gold plan is 54€ a month.

The service includes tutorials on many things including processing the images that you take, and the gold plan even includes a dedicated tutor to support you throughout the learning process.

So, fancy learning something new and taking your own pictures of the amazing universe out there, why not give it a go?