Astrophotography Taxonomy
by Phil Hart
1. Equipment
1.1. Mount
1.1.1. Equatorial
1.1.1.1. Portable
1.1.1.2. Fixed
1.1.2. Alt-Az
1.1.3. Tripod
1.1.4. Motion Control
1.1.5. Handheld
1.1.6. Airborne
1.1.6.1. Aircraft
1.1.6.2. Balloon
1.1.6.3. Rocket
1.1.7. Space Telescope
1.1.7.1. Earth Orbit
1.1.7.2. Solar Orbit
1.2. Optics
1.2.1. Lens
1.2.1.1. Fisheye
1.2.1.2. Wide Angle
1.2.1.3. Standard
1.2.1.4. Telephoto
1.2.2. Telescope
1.2.2.1. Refractor
1.2.2.2. Reflector
1.2.3. Pinhole
1.2.4. Light Field
1.3. Camera
1.3.1. DSLR
1.3.2. CCD
1.3.3. Film
1.4. Observatory
2. Location
2.1. Rural
2.2. Suburban
2.3. City
2.4. Regional Town
2.5. Coastal
2.6. Mountains
3. Style/Technique
3.1. Astrophotography
3.1.1. Deep Sky
3.1.2. Lunar and Planetary
3.1.3. Widefield
3.2. Night Sky Photography
3.2.1. Twilight
3.2.2. Night Sky Scenes
3.2.3. Star Trails
3.2.3.1. Single Shot
3.2.3.2. Stacked Sequence
3.2.4. The Moon / Long Focal Length
3.2.5. Timelapse
3.3. Scientific Imaging
3.3.1. Spectroscopy
3.3.2. Survey
3.3.2.1. Supernova
3.3.2.2. Comet & Asteroid
3.3.2.3. Variable Stars
3.3.3. Astrometry
3.3.4. Photometry
4. Spectrum
4.1. White Light
4.2. Narrowband
4.2.1. Mono
4.2.2. Colour Composite
4.3. Infrared
4.4. Ultraviolet
5. Event
5.1. Eclipse
5.2. Transit
5.3. Conjunction
5.4. Occultation
5.5. Storm
6. Object
6.1. Solar System
6.1.1. Sun
6.1.2. Earth
6.1.2.1. Night Landscape
6.1.2.2. Aurora
6.1.2.2.1. Borealis
6.1.2.2.2. Australis
6.1.2.3. Airglow
6.1.2.4. Meteors
6.1.2.5. Artificial Satellites
6.1.2.6. Light Pollution
6.1.2.7. Clouds
6.1.2.8. People
6.1.2.9. Belt of Venus
6.1.2.10. Noctilucent Clouds
6.1.3. Moon
6.1.4. Planets
6.1.4.1. Mercury
6.1.4.2. Venus
6.1.4.3. Mars
6.1.4.4. Jupiter
6.1.4.5. Saturn
6.1.4.6. Uranus
6.1.4.7. Neptune
6.1.5. Asteroids & Minor Planets
6.1.6. Comets
6.1.7. Zodiacal Light
6.1.8. Gegenschein
6.2. Deep Sky
6.2.1. Galaxies
6.2.1.1. Spiral
6.2.1.1.1. Milky Way
6.2.1.2. Elliptical
6.2.1.3. Irregular
6.2.1.3.1. Magellenic Clouds
6.2.2. Nebulae
6.2.2.1. Emission
6.2.2.2. Reflection
6.2.3. Star Clusters
6.2.3.1. Open
6.2.3.2. Globular
6.2.4. Constellations
7. Media
7.1. Digital Image
7.2. Digital Video
7.3. Film
8. Land
8.1. Private Land
8.1.1. Society Dark Sky Site
8.2. Public Land
9. Colour Space
9.1. RGB
9.2. B&W
9.3. CMYK
9.4. Lab
10. Tracking
10.1. Autoguide
10.2. Track & Stack
10.3. No Tracking
11. Composition Elements
11.1. Reflection
11.2. Silhouette
12. Control
12.1. Computer
12.1.1. Local
12.1.2. Remote