The night sky has always fascinated me and astro photography is next on my list of things I want to try. Meanwhile, when my tracker app alerts me of Northern Lights, I grab my gear and go for a hunt with my dog, like Orion.
Northern Lights
These images are from 2024, Northern Black Forest (South Germany) taken with a SONY RX100 III (no tripod). These lights were not visible to the naked eye.
But in 2026, just after 10pm (same location) I took these images with a Nikon SLR with a Tokina 11-16mm f/1.8 lens, tripod and remote. These lights were visible to the naked eye!
And a normal light polluted night for reference:
The Full Moon
You need no telescope to see the moon up close.
Here is an example how you can take a nice handheld photo of the full moon (in a light polluted urban area) without a fancy camera or a tripod: any DSLR with a 55-200 mm f/4-5.6 lens at 200 mm, 1/200 sec at f/11.
Same image as above, but cropped:
