Full-time astrophotographers Nico Carver and Sarah Mathews have designed the world's first, in-person workshop devoted exclusively to photographing nebulae. For this special event, we have chosen the absolute best time of year for capturing our favorites including the North America Nebula, the Crescent Nebula, the Pleiades, the Rosette Nebula, the Orion Nebula, and the Horsehead Nebula! With the favorable weather patterns for southern Arizona, we fully expect you will leave this workshop with several nebula photos that you can be proud to display.

Our main focus will be education and giving you the tools and expertise needed to master the art of nebula photography and be able to continue with it at home. We will be sharing powerful techniques that will cut through light pollution to reveal stunning nebular detail whether you live in a city or the country. By working together as a small group with us as your guides, you will learn more in four days than you would in months working alone.

We have crafted an all-inclusive workshop meaning your accommodations and all meals are included in the price. We will be staying, eating and conducting all elements of the workshop together at a beautiful ranch an hour outside of Tucson, Arizona. A huge advantage of staying at the same location where we will be shooting from is if you ever get tired, you can simply go sleep in a comfy bed in your private room. With the kits we recommend it will be possible to continue capturing photos while we sleep.

To be considered for the first cohort, please fill out our short application form. Please read through all the information about the workshop listed on this page first. We will consider applications on a rolling basis as they come in until the workshop is filled. If there are any cancellations, we will use a wait-list to bring the number of participants back up to 10. Those on the wait-list will also get priority in signing up for future workshops.

Maybe you’ve already captured the Milky Way with a DSLR and lens, but always wanted to try deep sky objects with a telescope. Or maybe you’ve only watched some videos on the topic, but didn’t know the best way to start. Our workshop will be valuable whether you are brand new to astrophotography, have dabbled in it a few times, or have been doing it for a couple years. You should be willing to invest in a dedicated astrophotography kit that we will show you how to use with in-depth, tailored instruction.

$3995 USD
Paid in two installments ($1500, Deposit - online upon acceptance | $2495, at Workshop - check preferred)

• Accommodations - a private room with bathroom, A/C, heat, blackout curtains, and WiFi. Single room is the default. Double room available upon request for additional fee. The ranch has breathtaking views and you can extend your stay if interested in sightseeing or hiking in the area.
• Meals - Freshly-prepared breakfast, lunch, and dinner are included for the entire stay at the ranch. Any dietary restrictions or preferences are possible with advanced notice. If you have any, please note them in your application. For late-night munchies while imaging, Nico and Sarah will provide additional snacks.
• Parking (if needed)
• Power - there will be A/C power strips to connect all gear so you don’t need to bring large batteries
• All group and individual instruction on site
• Pre-instruction session and an online community to keep in touch with your cohort
• Detailed take home instruction guide (PDF)

• Individual travel insurance (e.g. Allianz)
• Flights
• Ground transportation
• Alcohol (it’s permitted to bring your own, but we won’t be providing it)
• Photography and computer equipment (see below)

• One of the suggested astrophotography kits or a similar set of gear including an ASIAir.
• A mobile device (phone or tablet) for controlling the ASIAir. App compatibility: iPhone: Requires iOS 11.0 or later, iPad: Requires iPad iOS 11.0 or later, Android: Android 8.0 or later with at least 4GB RAM
• A laptop with one of these operating systems: Windows: Windows 8.1 or later. macOS: macOS 10.15 Catalina or later. Siril, Starnet, GraXpert and Photoshop installed. The laptop should also have at least 100 GB of free storage space internally or you can use an external SSD. We are happy to give instruction on other processing software (PixInsight, GIMP, etc.) during the individual sessions, but the four above are what will be covered in group sessions. Installation help will be available by Zoom before the workshop.
• Warm clothes and comfortable shoes - we will be outside at night. The average lows are around 30-40 F in early November.
• An open mind and a positive attitude 🙂

Note: a more detailed packing list will be sent to workshop participants. We will also be going over packing tips and tricks at our September Zoom sessions.

Cancellation and Refund Policy
Planning and hosting a workshop takes a considerable amount of time and other resources. Please see below for our cancellation and refund policies.

• If cancellation is made 90 days or more prior to the workshop’s start date, your deposit of $1500 USD is fully refundable. If you wish to transfer your deposit for a future workshop, you may opt to do so.



• If cancellation is made 45 days or less prior to the workshop’s start date, deposit is non-refundable and non-transferable.

Travel Insurance
Participants are strongly encouraged to acquire trip insurance (e.g. Allianz) for the workshop to safeguard against unexpected/ unforeseen emergencies or situations that may necessitate cancellation. This includes, but is not limited to, natural disasters, health concerns, outbreaks, epidemics, pandemics, illness, acts of nature, or closures that impede or restrict the workshop from proceeding as planned by Nebula Nights Workshop. Participants are responsible for protecting their payment(s) for the workshop.

Affiliate Links
All links on this webpage are affiliate links. This means at no extra cost to you, we will make a small commission if you click them and make a purchase. We very much appreicate it if you do use our links when purchasing gear for the workshop, and would be happy to work with you if you prefer ordering from a particular store. For this workshop, we have affiliate accounts at High Point Scientific, Agena Astro, and Amazon.