The objective of this practical lesson is to expose students to astrophotography.

Students will be familiarized with various components of the telescope and accessories.

Students will learn how to operate the telescope, CCD camera, device and software which control the telescope movements and star tracking, and imaging software.

The telescope we will be using is a huge 25 inches Dobsonian Telescope. It is the largest telescope in Singapore!

Image Credit: vastateparksstaff / CC BY 2.0

The best way to learn astrophotography is to begin with some of the easier targets of the night sky. These stellar objects are the planets and moons within our solar systems.

Image Credit: NASA, ESA, J. Clarke (Boston University), and Z. Levay (STScI)

In practical lesson 2, we will explore beyond our Solar Systems and venture into the Deep Space wonders. We will be taking pictures of sparking star clusters (globular and open clusters), mysterious nebulae and magnificent galaxies.

Image Credit: Boris.stromar /
CC BY-SA 3.0

Nebulae are interstellar cloud of gas and dust.

Nebulae are often nursery place for stars and planetary systems. Gases, dusts and other materials clump together to form larger masses.

Eventually the masses will be large enough to start nuclear fusion and formation of stars. The remaining materials will form planets and other objects in a planetary systems.

Image Credit: Image Credit: NASA, ESA, J. Hester and A. Loll (Arizona State University)

As the name implies, Spiral Galaxies have long winding arms extend out from the galaxy's center in a spiral structure.

The spiral arms host to many bright young stars and it is an active region of ongoing stars formation. The center of the galaxy contains mostly older and dimmer stars concentrated in a central region known as the bulge.

The entire disc of spiral galaxy is relatively flat. If we view spiral galaxy edge-on, the spiral arms will not be easily distinguishable.

Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/
ESA/Harvard-Smithsonian CfA