Before we get started with the how, we need to know what what. So what is astrophotography?
Astrophotography, or AP for short, is a combination of Science and Art. It is about aiming a camera at the sky and taking pictures of the things that are up there. For many people, it means Hubble Space Telescope images that showcase the incredible wonders that our Cosmos has to offer. For others, it's a simple cell phone camera aimed at the Moon after sunset. Both equally capture the beauty that is in the sky above us, but they are obviously very different things. For this Astropotamus, the answer lies somewhere in the middle. Like many of my fellow time travelers I use a combination of equipment, techniques, and software that has changed over time as my skill, budget, and free time allows. We'll take a look at each of these things that I call the Hobby Tripod.
This is where a lot of people start, and it's easy to see why - the Moon is visble (depending on the weather) about 50% of the time, so even if you live where I do where there is, on average, between 35%-65% cloud cover throughout the year (let's say an average of 50%) then that means that on 1 out of 4 nights, I should be able to see the Moon. Most of us carry cell phones in our pockets and the newer ones (but not mine) typically do a good job of taking a quick snapshot of the Moon. If that's not your thing, then a modern point-and-shoot, DSLR, or Mirrorless camera will do even better - substantially better, in most cases - especially if you hvae a solid tripod. Since the Moon is so bright, and with a good camera and lens combination it can fill the screen, shutter speeds of 1/6th of a second or shorter are normal. You can quickly take a picture, see how it looks, adjust, and do it again without any delay and without any complicated equipment or software workflow.
Once you've mastered taking snapshots of the Moon, you might want to go a litle farther. Without adding equipment, you can start to do things like taking the same picture from the same spot over the course of a few weeks and you'll be able to create composite images that show the phases of the Moon over time. Try using the best zoom lens or highest focal length telephoto lens that you have and focusing on the terminator (the line between darkness and light on the surface of the Moon) as it changes over time. If you're lucky, when the Moon is about half full, you can get the secret "X Marks the Spot" hidden in plain sight. Try getting the first light of the Moon just after its New Moon phase when it's the slighest sliver in the Western sky. Try getting Earthshine, which is where the light reflecting off of the Earth lights up the part of the Moon that's not lit directly by the Sun. Capture a lunar eclipse and see the Blood Moon as it turns a deep red! The Moon offers some fantastic opportunities without a lot of expense or fancy equipment. You can even do it in daylight!
NEVER LOOK DIRECTLY AT THE SUN OR AIM A TELESCOPE, CAMERA, OR OTHER OPTICS AT THE SUN UNLESS THEY ARE SPECIFICALLY DESIGNED TO DO SO AND PROTECTED BY THE APPROPRIATE FILTERS! That being said, the Sun is a great thing to photograph, as long as you do it safely.
There is a saying, attributed to James M. Wallace that you can have something good, fast, or cheap; pick two. It may seem trite, but that general sentiment is true for a lot of things. In the world of Astrophotography, it takes on new meaning. In AP, we have equipment and software that we use to to capture the images. That's the part related to cost. AP gear is generally not cheap (though you can certainly do Astrophotography on a budget and get great results). That equipment needs to be set up, calibrated, controlled, and used in ways that often require lots of experience and technical skills. That's the part related to how good the results will be. And, perhaps not limited to the hobby of AP, images can take hours to capture. Sometimes, they take make hours over many days. Which means that the weather has to cooperate and you have to have the time availble to set up, perform the work, tear things down, and then process the images, which can take more hours (or days!) on top of the time it took to capture the data in the first place. Just like Wallace said, you can do AP cheap and good but not fast, or fast and good but not cheap, or fast and cheap but not good. Take your pick.
We often say that we'll "put aside some time" or "make some time" or "save some time" for something or someone. Every time we say that, we're lying. We cannot make, save, or otherwise manipulate time (yet!) so really what these sayings mean is that we will prioritize our time so that we will do the things we said or spend that time with those people. The tradeoff is that something else that also requires time to perform will not have that attention paid to it. As I get older, it is time that seems to be the most important of the Hobby Tripod. Not because of any fear of dying or anything but simply because there are so many demands on my time. Family, friends, work, travel, concerts, a good movie, and all my other hobbies all require time. And, since most Astrophotography is done at night, if it takes two hours to set up and an hour to tear down, that leaves (on average) about five hours of darkness to do AP work when I would normally be sleeping. Which means I have to wait until my schedule allows, and hope that the skies and weather cooperate.
Enter the SkyShed POD. This one invention, which is a Personal Observation Dome (or POD) saves me the three hours of setup an tear down. My equipment is always ready to go (short of a few minutes of taking of lens caps and turning on electronics) and if there's going to be even just an hour of nice weather, I can open the POD for the hour, then close it afterwards and all of my equipment stays nice and dry while it rains and snows all around. In short, the SkyShed POD has changed the way I do Astrophotography by eliminating setup, tear down, and storage issues. I love it. I can't say enough positive things about it. But I know it costs money and while I was lucky to get a great deal on a used SkyShed POD, I know a lot of people won't be able to. BUT - if you can find a way to eliminate setup and tear down (or minimize that time) you'll have more time for taking the actual images, which is where Astrophotography really requires time.
If you take a selfie with your cell phone, the camera will opne the shutter for about 1/60 of a second (give or take). If you could take pictures non-stop, you could take 60 frames per second. In fact, some ghood video cameras do this (or more!). But that's under normal light with a well-lit subject. In AP, we're literally taking pictures of things in the sky that we often can't even see with our eyes. In short, we need all the light we can gegt.