Advanced Astrophotography Topic - Adamus W. Adelus

Hello fellow stargazers, today we'd like to introduce you to astrophotographer Adamus W. Adelus.

Hello Adamus, how did you get into this hobby?

Well – how did I get into this hobby?

I've always taken photos, ever since I had my own camera in elementary school. One of the first 24 pictures on my first roll of film shows the moon in the daytime sky above a mountain.

My first memory of the starry sky dates back a little over 20 years: Comet Hale-Bopp.

The oldest digital astrophoto is from 2002 – an extremely pixelated and blurry full moon. But back then, digital cameras were more of a toy.

In 2006, I started taking time-lapse photos and soon began doing this at night as well.

That's how it stayed for quite a while. The time-lapses improved, as did the lenses and cameras, and eventually, I was quite satisfied with this type of landscape astro-time-lapse photography.


... Sometime around six or seven years ago, I was in the mountains during a new moon (for time-lapse photography, of course).

Suddenly, I saw the Andromeda Galaxy – seemingly unimaginably vast and clear.

I pointed a camera that wasn't capable of time-lapse photography towards the sky and took a series of about 30 photos. I had read about image stacking somewhere, and so the next day I took my first deep-sky photo. That was it for me...

Over the past six years, I've acquired more and more equipment; I wanted to and could photograph deeper into space:

First a Vixen Polarie, then a Star Adventurer a few weeks later, and shortly after, an EQ5 mount with a 150/750 telescope. I spent the first year with this equipment.

Around that time, I also started building a website where I wanted to document my experiences with time-lapse photography, and initially did... but then things took a different turn, and it became a site where I can fully explore all things astrophotography. Time-lapse photography plays only a minor role there.

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What equipment do you use for your shots?

Did I hear you ask about my equipment?

Okay. I can tell you, but the list would be long.

The most important thing is my "mobile observatory."

Since I live right in the middle of a big city, I hardly ever get to photograph at home.

But, luckily, I don't live far from the Alps. Therefore, three different locations, all a few hours or up to 300 km away, are my astro-spots.

However, it's often cold there, not just in winter. On winter nights, it can be downright freezing.

That's why, over the last three years, I've converted a bus that allows me to be self-sufficient for about a week (thanks to a 130-liter fresh water tank, a decent solar system, etc.).

This "mobile observatory" is my most important "component."


And what about photography?

While I do have some "larger equipment" for that, I still prefer fast lenses for photographing wide expanses of the sky.

For example:

2x Canon 7Da + 2x Samyang 135mm

2x Canon 6Da + 2x Canon 200mm

Plus a whole range of other lenses: 14mm, 20mm, 35mm, 50mm, 85mm, which I particularly enjoy using to create sky mosaics or interactive 360° panoramas.

Telescopes?

Yes – a 600mm f/4 Newtonian and a 450mm apochromatic quadruplet.

Mounts?

Vixen Polarie, Star Adventurer, Omegon Minitrack LX3, an old SW EQ5, and an iOptron CEM25p.

Sounds like a lot?

It is.

But if you're forced to travel a long way (and only do so in perfect weather during a new moon), then you have to make the most of those few nights.

And the best way to do that is with multiple cameras shooting simultaneously.

If you'd like to visit Adamus W. Adelus, you can find him here:

INSTA: instagram.com/sternenhimmel.fotografieren/
YT: youtube.com/channel/UCweEAF2ZDi2L0utPTzUNvwA
Website: sternenhimmel-fotografieren.de
FB: facebook.com/sternenhimmel.fotografieren

Thank you for your contribution, Adamus.

Best regards, Karl and Rudi