Telescopes and DSLR cameras available today allow amateur astrophotographers to take very detailed images of the night sky. Combine this technology with advances in acquisition / tracking and processing software allow us to obtain images of nebulae, galaxies and star clusters of similar quality as those taken by professional observatories only a decade ago.
Often the targets are very faint, even with extremely sensitive cameras, long exposures ranging from a few minutes to several hours are needed to capture the pleasing detail. Extreme precision is required of the mechanics of telescope, focuser and mount to track these objects as they move along their path across the night sky.
A dark site, a bit of experience, and some image processing skills help to achieve pleasing results.