💡Thought Shares

c/astronomy-photos

9

jenny47•1d ago

My brand new telescope mount failed 20 minutes into my first night out at Big Bear Lake.

Was all set for some deep sky shots and the declination motor just locked up completely, any ideas on what could cause a brand new mount to seize like that out of the box?

18

ellis.faith•3d ago

Tried that $70 star tracker and it let me down hard

I was out in the desert near Tucson last Friday night trying to get a clean shot of the Orion Nebula. The tracker kept losing alignment after 3 minutes and every frame came out streaky. Anyone else had a budget star tracker just fail on them like that?

18

jana_jones•3d ago

Tried stacking 20 photos of the moon and got a blurry mess

I used my phone with a telescope adapter to shoot the moon last night and stacked 20 frames in Registax. Instead of a sharp image I got this weird ghosting effect around the edges. Did I use too many frames or is my alignment method just bad?

30

rowan_thomas84•3d ago

PSA: People keep calling Andromeda a galaxy you can see with the naked eye from the city

I live outside Philly and I keep seeing posts saying you can spot Andromeda without gear from your backyard. No, you can't. I drove 45 minutes to Cherry Springs State Park with my 8 inch Dobsonian last fall and it was still a faint smudge. In town it's completely invisible unless you're under Bortle class 3 or darker. Am I the only one tired of seeing wrong info get upvoted?

18

the_jana•4d ago

Wait, the Hubble Deep Field image is only 2.5 arcminutes across?

I was reading about the Hubble Deep Field on the Space Telescope site last night and I just can't wrap my head around how tiny that target area is... 2.5 arcminutes is like 1/12th the diameter of the full moon. How do they even pick a spot that small and know it's worth looking at for days on end?

12

mary_west•4d ago

Stacking 3 cheap filters on my telescope wrecked a whole night's exposure

I tried using a UV filter plus a moon filter plus a light pollution filter all at once thinking it'd give me a cleaner shot of Andromeda. Got back 4 hours of data and every single frame had weird internal reflections and a blue haze I couldn't fix. Anyone else learn the hard way that more glass between you and the sky is just asking for artifacts?

1

joel_clark37•5d ago

Some guy on the APOD forum told me to stop cranking up the saturation on my nebula shots

Tried backing off the color slider to 60% on that Orion image from last month and suddenly the dust lanes actually looked natural instead of like a unicorn threw up on my sensor, has anyone else had to unlearn bad editing habits?

11

laura_schmidt82•5d ago

Had to pick between a wide field and a close up shot of the Milky Way last night

I was out at this little spot near a creek about 20 miles outside of town, trying to get a good photo of the summer Milky Way. My camera was set up on the tripod and I had two lenses with me, a 14mm wide angle and a 50mm. I kept going back and forth on which one to use because the wide angle would get the whole arc but the 50mm would catch way more detail in the core. I ended up going with the 50mm because I figured I could always stitch a panorama later, but then the clouds rolled in after only 15 minutes of clear sky. The close up shot I got is pretty sharp but I missed the full view entirely. Has anyone else had to make that snap decision and regretted one choice over the other?

6

mason_lopez•6d ago

Guy at the star party killed the vibe with his laser pointer

Last month at the dark sky site near Marfa, this one dude kept pointing his green laser at satellites saying they ruined his photos. He even scanned across a nearby scope while someone was stacking 30-second exposures. Can we just agree to keep lasers off the tripod cameras?

3

ray356•6d ago

Just got back from McDonald Observatory in Texas something felt off about how they present the photos

I was out there last weekend for the star party they do. Everyone was oohing and aahing over the stacked images on the big screen they show inside. But I spent most of the time walking around the terrace and looking at the actual sky with my binos. The real view was dimmer and more scattered but way more honest. Why does every public astronomy event push these hyper processed photos instead of just letting people see what a telescope actually shows you?

12

nancyn69•7d ago

Just hit 500 comet photos in my collection and it made me realize something

I was organizing my hard drive last night (boring task I know) and I noticed I have exactly 503 comet photos saved up. That number really surprised me because I never thought I'd have more than maybe 50. Most of them are from my backyard setup in Tucson where the skies are pretty dark. I started shooting comets back in 2020 when Neowise came through and I got hooked. Each one has its own little story like that faint one from last March that I almost missed. It's weird how a random milestone like that can make you feel like you've actually been doing something meaningful. Has anyone else ever counted up their collection and found a number that caught them off guard?

3

marywilson•21d ago

Swapped my old 8-inch dob for a 6-inch refractor and I don't regret it

I used to think bigger aperture was always better (you know, the usual obsession with light gathering). But after three months of hauling that 8-inch tube out to my backyard in Portland, I was barely using it. Switched to a compact refractor from Orion and honestly, the views of the moon and Jupiter are just as crisp, plus I actually take it outside now. Has anyone else downsized and found they enjoyed the hobby more?

13

angela587•22d ago

I wasted $300 on a so-called 'smart telescope' last month

Honestly, I bought this NovaScope thinking it would automatically locate deep-sky objects and take perfect photos. Spent 3 nights trying to set it up in my backyard in Phoenix, and it kept losing alignment because of the light pollution. The motor mount was super loud and the included camera produced better star blobs than anything else. Just go with a basic Dobsonian and a phone adapter for way less money. Has anyone else had better luck with these things or did I just get a dud?

32

the_claire•26d ago

The difference in Jupiter's bands between 2016 and 2020 blew my mind

I was going through my old astrophotography folder last night and found a shot of Jupiter I took in 2016 with my Celestron 8 and a cheap webcam. The bands looked so fuzzy and washed out, like there was barely any detail. Then I pulled up a stack I did in 2020 after I finally figured out how to use AutoStakkert properly and the difference is crazy. The equatorial bands went from this muddy brown to sharp, defined stripes with little swirls and knots in them. I think the 2020 shot was closer to opposition too, so Jupiter was bigger in the frame, but the processing made the biggest difference. Have you guys ever gone back and compared your old planetary shots to newer ones? How much of an improvement did you see?

8

blair_taylor32•28d ago

The Orion Nebula looked like a smudge through my cheap scope, but stacking 50 frames blew my mind

I got a $150 telescope last summer and pointed it at Orion. Honestly I was super disappointed because it just looked like a fuzzy gray blob. Then a guy in this forum told me to take lots of short exposures and stack them. I used DeepSkyStacker on 50 frames and suddenly there was all this red and purple gas. Has anyone else felt like stacking is a total game changer for basic setups?

13

mark436•28d ago

Vent: My camera battery died 45 minutes into a 3 hour star trail shoot

I set up my tripod out at Cherry Springs State Park last weekend, got my framing perfect on the Milky Way, and had my intervalometer all set. But I forgot to check my spare battery after it sat in my bag for two months, so it was dead. My main battery gave out after only 45 minutes of shooting, and I had to pack it up while everyone else around me kept clicking away. I tried to salvage what I got by stacking the 90 frames into one short trail, but it barely looks like anything. Has anyone else had a gear failure ruin a night of astrophotography, and did you find a way to make the shots work anyway?

16

angela587•29d ago

Bought a $20 lens heater strip and it killed my astro photos forever

I spent months fighting with frost on my lens during winter shoots at Cherry Springs. Tried hand warmers taped to the barrel, but they fell off after an hour. Finally grabbed a cheap 12v heating band from Amazon and wrapped it around my 135mm f/2 manual lens. No more ruined subs, has anyone else found a random accessory that fixed a specific problem like that?

8

wendy131•1mo ago

Unpopular opinion: smartphone astro photos are ruining the hobby

I was out near Mount Rainier last month with my 10 inch Dob, and a group showed up with just phones and tripods. They cranked up brightness and noise reduction filters, posted blurry shots of the Milky Way, and acted like they had the same gear as me. None of them could even point out Andromeda without an app. Has anyone else noticed this trend taking over stargazing spots?

2

ray356•1mo ago

Pro tip: stopped trying to edit out light pollution and started using it

For years I was processing astro photos trying to remove every bit of orange glow from nearby towns. Spent hours with gradients and masks in Photoshop. Then last winter I was shooting from a spot near Flagstaff and a guy walked over, looked at my screen, and said "why are you fighting the sky? put that glow behind the Milky Way core instead." Tried it that night and the shot was way better with the warm light creating a natural rim around the mountains. Now I plan my compositions around light pollution instead of running from it. Has anyone else shifted their approach like this?

25

ivanscott•1mo ago

Compared stacked vs single exposure moon shots this weekend

I shot the moon with a single frame on my Canon and then tried stacking about 50 frames in Registax. The stacked image had way more crater detail and less noise even though it took longer to process. Has anyone else noticed a big jump in quality when they switched to stacking?

2

phoenixw11•1mo ago

Took me 5 years to try stacking moon photos and it was a game changer

Back in 2017 I kept taking single shots of the moon with my DSLR and they always came out blurry and disappointing. A guy on a forum told me to try taking like 50 frames and stacking them in some free software called Autostakkert. I ignored him for yearss because I thought it sounded too complicated. Finally gave it a shot last winter and the difference was insane like going from a flip phone camera to a pro setup. Anyone else put off trying something simple because you thought it would be hard?

14

piperbailey•1mo ago

Tried stacking 30 minutes of Andromeda data and got way less than I expected

I was dead set on getting a killer shot of M31 with my DSLR and 200mm lens, figured 30 minutes of 30-second subs would be plenty. After stacking in DeepSkyStacker and processing in GIMP, the core was blown out and the outer arms were basically invisible. Turns out I needed way more total exposure time and better calibration frames, like at least 90 minutes from a Bortle 4 zone near Sedona. Anyone else mess up their first galaxy shot by underestimating how much data you really need?

16

robin591•1mo ago

Rant: That iconic Pillars of Creation photo is NOT what most people think

I read an article from NASA's website last week that totally changed how I see that famous 1995 Hubble image. Turns out those pillars are actually being DESTROYED by radiation from nearby stars, and they probably already collapsed about 6,000 years ago. The photo we all love is basically a ghost picture of something that doesn't exist anymore. Everyone treats it like this timeless space wonder, but really it's a snapshot of destruction. Why do astronomy groups keep acting like it's some peaceful scene when the science says otherwise? Has anyone else looked into the actual timeline of that nebula?

30

avery219•1mo ago

Tried stacking my star photos from the local dark site last weekend...

I spent 4 hours driving 90 miles out to that dark spot by Payson just to get all my frames ruined by a passing cloud bank after midnight. Has anyone else had a whole night of shooting wiped out by weather you didn't see coming?

2

hall.joel•1mo ago

Been looking at deep sky photos all week and noticed something weird about exposure times

I read on Cloudy Nights that stacking 30 second subs gets you cleaner data than one 15 minute exposure for galaxies, even though total time is the same. Which camp are you in, short exposures with heavy stacking or long single frames?