Astrophotography on Instagram has exploded in the past few years:
- On 7 July 2015, there were 107,938 images tagged with the hashtag #astrophotography.
- On 30 May 2022, there were 4,486,878.
That’s a growth rate of 4057% in seven years!
There are many great astrophotography and astronomy accounts to follow on Instagram for learning and inspiration and this post brings together some of the best for you to follow.
In addition, we answer the frequently asked questions, including what hashtags you should be using to get your Instagram astrophotography photos seen.
Best Astrophotography Instagram Accounts to Follow
In no particular order, here are what we believe are the best astrophotography accounts to follow on Instagram.
Some are focused on landscape astrophotography, some on deep sky, planetary, or space exploration. Some are educational and some are more inspirational.
Andrew McCarthy
Andrew is one of the best planetary, lunar and solar photographers out there at the moment.
Astronomy Picture Of The Day
This is the account for NASA’s Astronomy Picture Of The Day (APOD) site which shares the daily winners of the prestigious award.
Milky Way Chasers
Run by a group of individuals, this account shares the Milky Way photos of others through their account and has 734k followers.
Astrophotographers can submit their images for consideration to the Milky Way Chasers Facebook group using the hashtag #milkywaychasers.
This is great for seeing different people’s images and exploring the techniques and the astrophotography cameras they use.
Sean Parker
Sean Parker is a professional landscape photographer based in Tucson, Arizona.
His work has been featured with Smithsonian, Arizona Highways, NatGeo, Weather Channel, and more!
Astrobin
Astrobin is a great image sharing website, especially for deep sky and planetary astrophotography.
This account shares some of the best images daily.
Navaneeth Unnikrishnan
Navaneeth is an Indian photographer with a diverse portfolio but includes some amazing landscape and deep sky images taken with an astrophotography telescope.
Marcus Cote
Marcus is a freelance photographer based on Florida’s Space Coast.
Follow his profile to see shots of rocket launches and landscape photography from Florida.
You can also read our background piece with Marcus on how to shoot a Milky Way selfie.
Manuel Dietrich
Manuel is a photographer and filmmaker from Germany.
He’s done some great landscape astrophotography and has some great videos on his YouTube channel.
Jason Guenzel
Jason shares some brilliant deep sky and planetary images taken with telescopes and astrophotography mounts.
Wayne Pinkston
Wayne is a Southwest-based photographer sharing some brilliant landscape astrophotography pictures taken with wide-angle lenses.
Tracy Lee
Tracy is a Vegas-based professional photographer covering a range of different styles but with some great landscape astrophotography images.
She’s also a great account to follow as she details how each capture was made which can be incredibly useful.
Michael Ver Sprill
Michael has named himself “Milky Way Mike” which should be a good indicator of what to expect!
Follow his account and also read his Skies & Scopes case study.
Connor Matherne
Connor is a deep space and planetary astrophotographer consistently sharing amazing images.
You can also read his case study on Milky Way photography here.
Monika Deviat
Monika is a Calgary-based travel and landscape photographer who captures some great starry skies and auroras.
Astro Backyard
A great account to follow to learn about deep-sky astrophotography, he often uses star trackers as part of his setup.
Derek Culver
Derek shares mostly landscape astrophotography, but also some deep sky images with an astro modified camera.
Nicholas Roemmelt
Dr. Nicholas Roemmelt is an adventure landscape photographer from Germany who does some great starscapes.
Leonardo Orazi
Italy’s Leonardo shares images of Deep Space Objects like the example below.
He has also written for Skies & Scopes here.
Lee Cook
New Zealand’s Lee Cook is a travel and landscape photographer who was the Nightscape Winner for the New Zealand Astrophotography Competition 2021 for this image:
NASA
Bit of a no-brainer that NASA is a great source of astronomy images.
They have multiple Instagram accounts and it is worth following their main one and others for different projects and space centers.
Alyn Wallace
Hailing from Wales, Alyn Wallace is one of the best landscape astrophotographers out there and has a big following due to his excellent YouTube channel.
The Space Telescope Science Institute
The STSI is the academic organization officially working to analyze the images sent back from NASA’s Hubble telescope.
Benjamin Barakat
Benjamin Barakat is an award-winning night sky photographer, featured in Forbes, National Geographic, CNN, BBC, and more.
NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory
The JPL manages NASA’s robotic missions to explore space.
FAQs: Astrophotography Instagram
What are the best astrophotography Instagram hashtags?
It depends on what you are shooting – for example, the Milky Way, planets or deep sky objects like galaxies and nebula, but some astrophotography hashtags to consider to use on your Instagram images are:
- #astrophotography #astrophoto #astrofotografia #astrofotografie #astro_photography_ #astro_photography #astronomy #astro
- #nasa #astrobin #imageoftheday
- #space #cosmos #outerspace #universe #galaxy #nebula
- #landscape #nightscape
- #milkyway #milkywaychasers #milkywaygalaxy #starrysky #stars #startrailchasers #sky
- #longexposure #longexpo #longexpohunter #amazing_longexpo #longexposurephotography
- #telescope
- #amazingearth #amazingphotohunter #fantasticuniverse
What are the best moon photography hashtags?
If sharing an image of the moon, you may want to use hashtags like (as well as some of those listed above):
- #moon #moonlight #luna #lunar #fullmoon #moonphotography #moonlovers #moonphase
What are the best night photography hashtags?
The best night photography hastags are:
- #nightphotography #nightsky #night #nightimages #nightshooterz #nightshooters #nightpics #night_excl #nightimages
Can you get paid for astrophotography?
You can earn money in a number of ways from astrophotography.
See our article on How to Make Money with Astrophotography.
Who is the best Astrophotographer?
This is pretty subjective, but all those listed above are great.
See also the Best Astrophotographer Case Studies and the Best Astrophotography YouTube channels.
What is the best app for astrophotography?
It depends on what aspect you want the app for – e.g. planning, composing, shooting, editing, etc.
See the Best Astrophotography Apps for a full list.
Can iPhone shoot astrophotography?
Yes, see our guide to iPhone Astrophotography.
What are the Best Instagram Astrophotography Accounts?
We hope you found some great accounts to follow.
If there is anyone that we missed that you think belongs on this list, please let us know in the comments below.
Really good, amazing jobs, congratulations to all!
I am passionate about astrophotography and currently I practice landscape night photography, my great inspiration in this type of photo has always been Sergio Vindas in my country Costa Rica, it is a great pride that he is among the best and a great example in photography to follow!
https://www.instagram.com/gpoki/
Nice list! Derek culver and Jared Warren have been high on my list for a while now 😜.
try this guy
https://www.instagram.com/thetaintedtripod/
Hey! Follow my account for more astrophotography! 😀
http://www.instagram.com/nicolezanella/
Hi, I’m Fefo Bouvier, a landscape and night sky photographer. I’m submitting my account @fefobouvier for this list. Thanks!
Thanks Fefo! We’ll update the article in the future.
Congrats to all those included. Some great accounts, but also a few that are hard to understand. The danger with such lists is that they are always completely arbitrary.