Watching videos on YouTube is a great way of learning astrophotography for free.
There are some brilliant channels that you can follow and I have learned a lot from what these people have shared.
See below are some of our favorites (in no particular order).
Alyn Wallace
Alyn was from Wales in the UK and focussed on Milky Way and landscape astrophotography.
He has some great tutorials and travel vlogs where he has gone to places like the Atacama Desert in Chile and the Spanish Canary islands for night photo shoots.
In addition, he did a really useful monthly ‘What’s in the night sky’ vlog that takes you through what you might be able to see and capture in the current month.
Sadly, Alyn passed away in March 2024 but his videos are still there for us to remember him by. RIP Alyn.
Pete Zelinka
Pete is an American photographer with a great channel that has tutorials and equipment reviews for both deep sky and landscape astrophotography.
AstroBackyard
This channel features a guy (Trevor Jones) based in Canada who specializes in deep-sky photography from (you guessed it) his backyard.
If you are new to deep space astro imaging then this is one of the best places you can get an understanding of how to go about it and what equipment you can use.
Milky Way Mike
Michael Ver Sprill is ‘Milky Way Mike’. His brilliant YouTube channel is landscape astro focussed with good coverage of how to get the best from software and editing.
We did a case study with Mike on Skies & Scopes on how he goes about his astrophotography which you can read here.
AstroBiscuit
This is a great channel for tutorials on how to do astrophotography on a low budget.
The host is British and doesn’t take himself too seriously but which makes for fun videos that are also great to learn from.
High Point Scientific
HPS are a trusted retailer of astronomy and astrophotography equipment.
Their YouTube channel has a lot of good content mostly focused on deep-sky image processing and equipment reviews.
AstroStace
AstroStace’s YouTube channel is a great collection of deep sky-focussed tutorials, including equipment recommendations and image processing.
Thierry Legault
Thierry is one of the masters of astrophotography and has published one of the best astrophotography books.
His YouTube channel is mostly a collection of his video captures of the International Space Station (ISS) and other satellites in transit.
Dylan O’Donnell
Dylan is an Australian astronomer and astrophotographer who creates videos that answer topical questions.
He has a good sense of humor that makes the videos easy to watch, whilst providing expert tips.
Nebula Photos
This channel is from Nico Carver and focuses on deep sky photography with a lot of good tutorials for doing this with a DSLR.
Galactic Hunter
This is the YouTube channel of Las Vegas couple Antoine and Dalia Grelin.
They say they are on a mission to capture every one of the Messier Objects and the videos record that journey.
Chuck’s Astrophotography
Chuck is a prolific producer of astrophotography videos and a great channel to follow.
They tend to be more on the advanced side in terms of the equipment used.
Deep Sky Dude
This channel has reviews and tutorials for big telescopes and advanced equipment.
As the name suggests, it is deep sky focussed, but there are also tutorials on capturing the moon and planets.
Forrest Tanaka
This channel has some of the best tutorial videos out here.
Note though, it hasn’t had anything added since 2013 and so some of the content will be getting dated now.
J.W.Astronomy
Coming from Germany, this channel features tutorials focussed on astrophotography with a telescope.
Ray’s Astrophotography
Lots of advanced tutorial and equipment review videos covering solar system and deep space astro imaging.
Amy Astro
This is a relatively new channel that has a great set of deep-sky tutorials with a focus on software post-processing.
Cuiv, The Lazy Geek
This guy has a great laid-back style. The videos are quite technical and more for the advanced astrophotographer.
The Astro Imaging Channel
Another advanced channel that features a range of top astrophotographers sharing their expertise.
AstroAddict
This is another deep sky focused channel, with image capture and processing tutorials and case studies.
What are the Best YouTube Astrophotography Channels?
Hopefully you’ve found the right channels for you on your astrophotography journey.
Most of the channels tend to fall into one of two buckets:
- Inspiring people doing beautiful Milky Way and landscape astrophotography, and
- Advanced channels providing technical tutorials for deep sky photography
Are there any that we’ve missed? Or any that take a different angle and are not yet on our radar?
This is by no means an exhaustive list and so please let us know in the comments below if you know of any other channels that we should add.
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I have been in this hobby for about 18 months and just couldn’t stop smiling going through your list, because by myself I ended up with almost the same channels being my favourites! Chuck? I just love him trying to make us think he is a bit stupid – because he’s definitely NOT! No need to talk about Trevor and the quality of his videos AND his results, just breathtaking! Dylan? You mentioned Dylan? How can you include someone who is making fun of everyone 🤣🤣🤣?! Love his videos … And Nico? 90 minute videos? Come on, YouTube works on with 4 minute videos … He’s great! Thanks very much!
Definitely recommend VisibleDark! We make it a point to watch every single one of Shawn’s videos.
Thanks!