Just realized why I kept losing stars in my photos

Last month I was out in Joshua Tree trying to get a clear shot of the Milky Way and kept getting weird blurry spots. Turns out I had smudged my lens with my finger when I adjusted the tripod... has anyone else done something that simple and felt dumb about it?

3 comments

3 Comments

joel_jones25d ago

Wait, did you check the lens BEFORE you went out or only after you saw the blurry spots? I did basically the same thing at a star party last year, but it was with the eyepiece on my telescope. I was so EXCITED to show people Saturn that I forgot to check if the eyepiece was clean after I had been eating chips. The whole night I was wondering why the planet looked like a fuzzy ball with a ring around it. Turns out my greasy fingerprints were the culprit, and I felt SO dumb when I finally wiped it off and everything snapped into focus.

joel_clark3725d agoTop Commenter

@joel_jones that's a bummer but at least you caught it eventually. I've done similar things with my camera gear. Honestly though, people get way too hung up on clean lenses. A little dust or a minor smudge usually won't ruin astro shots as much as people think. The bigger issue is usually focus or exposure settings. I've taken some of my best star photos with a slightly dirty lens and no one could tell the difference.

patricia_gonzalez24d ago

My buddy spent a whole night blaming light pollution before finding a Cheeto fingerprint on his lens.