By Staff Writer – 5 June 2025
The past decade has seen amateur astrophotography explode from a niche pastime into a full-blown online phenomenon. Four YouTube creators now dominate the field, amassing a combined audience of more than 1.1 million subscribers and turning late-night stargazing sessions into binge-worthy programming. Below is a look at the content—and the cult followings—behind the channels ranked by reach and recent influence.
1 | Astrobiscuit – 394 K subscribers, 73 videos
“Adventures in astrophotography with a pink bunny side-kick.” youtube.com
Britain’s Rory “Biscuit” Peckham blends slap-stick humour with serious sky-science, strapping budget cameras to makeshift rigs and proving that “space is for everyone.” A six-minute viral short filmed last week through his rebuilt 14-inch Dobsonian—capturing Jupiter, Mars, Saturn, Venus and Uranus in a single night—pulled in 339 000 views in under a weekyoutube.com.
Peckham’s DIY ethos dates to 2015, when he left Discovery Channel post-production to launch a YouTube project that “baked science into biscuits” for beginners. Today the channel hosts episodic “Space Missions” and long-form repair dramas (“Betty’s Story”) while an indie website sells limited-edition prints to fund ever-bolder projectsyoutube.com.
2 | AstroBackyard – 507 K subscribers, 359 videos (tied)
Ontario-based Trevor Jones is the internet’s de-facto astro-coach. His mission statement—“simplifying astrophotography for beginners”astrobackyard.com—runs through everything from “Wide-Field Processing Tutorials” (January 2025)astrobackyard.com to equipment reviews that regularly top 250 000 views. Analytics site vidIQ clocks the channel at 506 000 subscribers and 59 million lifetime views as of 20 April 2025vidiq.com, while a fast-growing companion blog now hosts 500+ articles and seasonal target guidesinstagram.com.
Jones’ strength is relatability: nearly every video is filmed in the same suburban backyard where he shot his first Andromeda Galaxy in 2010, proving light-polluted skies needn’t kill a hobby.
2 | Nebula Photos – 216 K subscribers, 206 videos (tied)
American astrophotographer Nico Carver describes his channel as a “lab notebook for beginners”youtube.com. Viewers flock to his meticulous walk-throughs—think a $30 manual star-tracker build that became Reddit legend in 2021 and is still recommended today.
Carver’s teaching credentials were on display in a February 2025 episode of The Astrocast, where he broke down narrow-band image processing for an hour-long live audience iheart.com. Recent uploads include budget-versus-premium gear shoot-outs and an ongoing mail-in critique series that turns subscribers’ own prints into learning tools youtube.com.
3 | Cuiv, The Lazy Geek – 69 K subscribers, 423 videos
Tokyo-based “lazy” host Cuiv specialises in urban astrophotography—teaching viewers to beat heavy light pollution with clever filters, software and a dose of self-deprecation. Channel statistics site Youtubers.me lists 69 000 subscribers and 422 uploads as of May 2025 ng.youtubers.me.
Signature pieces include a 90-minute PixInsight master-class (“From Zero to Hero”) and a March 2025 interview with ZWO founder Sam Wen that scooped firmware updates for the Seestar smart telescope before the trade press youtube.com. Cuiv’s trademark: real-time processing marathons that run long, unedited and unusually honest—part tutorial, part communal troubleshooting session.
Why They Matter
Together these creators have transformed YouTube into the world’s largest free astronomy classroom. Their content ranges from backyard-friendly DSLR hacks to high-budget observatory builds, but all share three common threads:
- Education first. Each channel packages complex workflows—plate-solving, guiding, narrow-band calibration—into digestible story arcs.
- Community. Discord servers, Patreon meet-ups and mail-in challenges turn passive viewers into active collaborators.
- Accessibility. Whether shooting through a £100 action cam (Astrobiscuit) or testing the latest cooled CMOS (Cuiv), the message is clear: you can photograph the night sky.
As hobbyists upgrade rigs ahead of the 2026 total solar eclipse, expect these four voices to shape both the gear people buy and the images that flood social media. In a universe of 200 billion galaxies, there’s room for plenty of stars—but for now, Astrobiscuit, AstroBackyard, Nebula Photos and Cuiv sit firmly at the centre of YouTube’s astrophotography cosmos.