Jupiter and Saturn rising over an ancient carob tree in the Atacama Desert

If you want to get great astrophotography shots you need to do your homework. Knowing exactly when and where certain objects are going to be in the sky can make ordinary photos become great ones!

Jupiter peeking over the top of the observatory

I must admit I'm a bit of a hippie at heart and don't even use a cell phone on a regular basis, let alone connect to aps 24/7. But I also understand that sometimes a helping hand is needed to aid your photography and take you to the next level. One app I can't live without when it comes to astronomy is the Stellarium app which I use on my laptop. You can login to any place or time, past, present or future and explore what's in the night sky. I wouldn't be able to do my astronomy tours without it because I know exactly what's going to be in the sky and when.

A silhouetted tree with Saturn and Jupiter peering through the branches as the milky way rises

It only takes half an hour to plan your night and you'll look like a pro. This also works when I'm planning my astrophotography shots, this week I wanted to capture Jupiter and Saturn rising over interesting foregrounds so I used stellarium to plan exactly when and where they were going to rise and off I went to start shooting. I selected three of my favourite shots from the week's shooting. Hope you like them!