Field Guides

Learn astrophotography from a city rooftop.

Concise, field-friendly tutorials built for beginners shooting under light-polluted skies. No fluff — just what you need to know, when you need it.

Concepts
What Is Astrophotography?
The fundamentals — what makes it different from regular photography, what's possible from a city, and what you're getting into.
8 min Beginner
Planning
Session Planning Considerations
Weather, moon phase, target visibility, darkness windows — everything to check before you set up for a night of imaging.
10 min Beginner
In the Field
Your First Night Out
A step-by-step walkthrough for your first imaging session — from setup to polar alignment to first light.
Beginner
In the Field
What Went Wrong?
Visual troubleshooting — star trails, bad focus, amp glow, walking noise. See the problem, learn the fix.
Beginner
Processing
Stacking Your First Image
From raw sub-frames to a stacked master — using free tools to combine hundreds of exposures into one clean image.
Beginner