I got kinda interested in astro-photography at one time, to the point where I went to a local astronomy club to hear a talk on it. It was very interesting and the guy had some great photos taken with an 8” scope. After the meeting a lot of members set up their scopes and you could go from scope-to-scope looking at the night sky. However, I also learned that photos, like the one shown here, done with a small telescope required “layering” over 300 still photos taken over days of night viewing. I know myself well enough to know I don’t have the patience for that.
I have trouble getting it together for a 30 second exposure. I use my camera mounted on my telescope with a drive, but I get a lot of extraneous motion, as indicated by jittery star tracks. I think I need to clean up my mount.
With a digital SLR, 30 seconds will get you a very satsifying image of e.g. the Milky Way or the Orion Nebula, but of course nothing like what advanced amateurs get. It’s all made possible by the incredible technology, of course.