New to astrophotography? One of the technicalities that you may want to learn at this point is what focal length to use. In a nutshell, it depends on the night sky object you want want to capture. Today’s featured astrophotography tip, however, will give you a better idea on this topic, as well as other related factors that can affect your results.

Daylon Burt of Astro Escape gives a rundown of what you can capture with the focal length range you use with APS-C sensor cameras. He starts with 8mm – 24mm all the way to 2000mm and above. In general, the deeper the object is — or the smaller it appears in the night sky — the longer focal lengths you’ll need to use.

Burt also gave some examples of lenses you can use for each focal length range. For those that require telescopes and guiding, he also dropped some recommendations and tips for choosing one.

He also noted that different gear combinations will give you different results. Sensor size and focal reducers and field flatteners will change the field of view. Also, you can still capture small objects at wide focal lengths, which should be useful if you also want to include other cool objects alongside it.

Looking for more astrophotography tips and tricks like this? Don’t forget to join our group discussions as well if you’re already part of the Photofocus Community!