About the Equipment

Astrophotography can involve a rather complex set of equipment, which fall into a few basic categories:

Mounts - A solid, accurate equatorial mount is vital for successful long exposure astrophotography.

Scopes - It's not required to start out, but most people will naturally move up to a telescope at some point

Cameras - The one item you can't do this without

Lenses - If you don't use a telescope, you need some of these

Film - What works and what doesn't

Image Processing - If the lab hasn't ruined your work

Gadgets - And other accessories