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From Balcony Astrophotography to an ESA Feature: Robert Malinowski’s Story
From Balcony Astrophotography to an ESA Feature: Robert Malinowski’s Story
| Sometimes, getting closer to the stars starts with something as simple as putting a Seestar on a balcony and seeing what appears. 🌌🔭
My name is Robert Malinowski. I live in Warsaw, Poland, and work in the video game industry. Outside of work, I tend to collect hobbies. Astrophotography is one of the more recent additions to that list. I had owned a small telescope before, mostly for observing planets. Without proper tracking, photographing the night sky quickly resulted in star trails, so I never really crossed the line into what I considered astrophotography.
Then, in early 2025, I saw a video about the Seestar S30. That turned into several videos. Then more reviews. Then I bought one.
What attracted me was the concept. Traditional astrophotography had always seemed fascinating, but also intimidating: telescopes, mounts, cameras, guiding, cables, software, power, alignment, transport and setup. There is a lot to understand before you even know whether the hobby is for you.
The S30 offered a missing step between pointing a phone at the sky and building a serious astrophotography rig. It was small enough for a backpack, controllable from my phone, and I could connect a power bank and leave it running for hours. I didn't need to understand everything before taking my first photograph. That turned out to be incredibly important.
My first proper image of the Andromeda Galaxy completely blew me away. I couldn't believe that this tiny telescope sitting on my balcony had captured another galaxy.
Most of my astrophotography is still done from that balcony in Warsaw, under fairly heavy light pollution. I'm also not the kind of astrophotographer who plans every target months in advance. Sometimes I simply look outside, open Sky Atlas, and see what is available in the piece of sky visible from my balcony.
There is a particular kind of magic in choosing something you cannot see with your own eyes and then watching it slowly appear. After a few stacked exposures, some structure starts to emerge. A few minutes later, something that existed only as a name and a preview image becomes visible on your phone.
It's almost like watching a secret reveal itself one frame at a time.
Through my professional work, I had previously encountered the European Space Agency, and that's how I learned about #yourESA and ESA's community features. I added the hashtag to some of the astrophotos I had already posted and more or less forgot about it.
Around the same time, I had the opportunity to meet Sławosz Uznański-Wiśniewski, the second Pole to travel to space. I showed him my Andromeda photograph. He liked it, and we took a photo together while he held up my image.
There is something wonderfully surreal about seeing an astronaut holding a picture of another galaxy that you captured from your balcony.
Months later, while I checked my Instagram messages, I found one from the person running ESA's account. They had come across my work and wanted to feature it in a collaboration. The selection included my images of the Pleiades, Andromeda Galaxy, North America Nebula (NGC 7000), and IC 63.
I remember staring at that message for a moment.
Most of these were photographs taken by an amateur from a balcony in light-polluted Warsaw, using a telescope small enough to fit in a backpack. And now the European Space Agency wanted to share them. That meant, and still means, a great deal to me.
I still have that beginner's sense of wonder. But now I'm also starting to look at more advanced astrophotography setups and wonder where this hobby might take me next.
Clear skies！
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