About

Hello, I'm Martyn — the person behind Astromar, a Devon-based astrophotography setup, and the honest write-up of everything that comes with it: the gear that works, the gear that doesn't, and the long, cold, occasionally frustrating process of turning light from things unfathomably far away into an actual photograph.

My content comes from multiple different approaches to astrophotography. The ZWO Seestar S50 is my travel scope; it’s extremely portable and stimulates great conversations with friends and family. The manual rig is the opposite: slower and more hands on, but also somewhat more rewarding. Split into the DSLR and dedicated astrophotography camera approach. I’ve listed the full spec of my rigs in the gear list below, if you’re looking for somewhere to get started.

My journey into astronomy started when I was around 15 years old. I remember excitedly looking through telescope listings with my dad in my monthly subscription to the Sky at Night magazine, captivated by resolving those tiny points of light in the sky. Ambitious to begin my own adventure, I ordered my first telescope with money I'd saved up working in the kitchen at a local pub: a Sky-Watcher Skyliner 250P Dobsonian Reflector. I remember waking up very early one morning — a school day, no less — determined to catch Saturn. It had snowed overnight, but that didn't stop me carrying each part of the Dobsonian out to the lay-by opposite our house. I managed to capture a few shaky shots through my LG Cookie phone, and excitedly ran over to show my dad.

After a few years away from astronomy and astrophotography, I decided to reignite my spark for the hobby by swapping the cumbersome Dobson reflector for a smart telescope, the Seestar S50. I excitedly tried to capture as many night sky objects as possible. It was only after leaving it running outside overnight that my first shot of the Veil Nebula blew me away by how much detail you can actually capture. I've since decided to upgrade to a full manual rig, to learn more and capture even more detail, and use my S50 when travelling or visiting family/friends.

Everything published is unedited beyond normal processing — no stock images, no borrowed data. My reviews contains the gear I've actually used, for better or worse. The Guide section is what I wish someone had explained to me plainly before I had to learn it the hard way. The workshop is where the hobby turns into something closer to a dataset — running the photo archive itself through some models and analysis, because eventually you start wondering what else it can tell you.