c/astronomy-photos

6

tylerr39•2h ago

That one Reddit user who told me to try stacking frames saved my Jupiter shot

Some guy on a forum said to take 3 minute video clips instead of single shots and stack the best frames in Registax. I tried it last week with my 8 inch dob and got a Jupiter photo that actually shows banding for the first time. Anyone else have a random internet tip that totally changed your astrophotography game?

4

aaron677•17h ago

I finally spotted why so many stacked astro photos look blurry in the corners

Everyone stacks their frames but nobody checks if their mount's polar alignment drifted mid session, which ruined 3 hours of my Andromeda data before I realized the stars were trailing just 2 pixels per frame over 200 lights.

19

lee733•2d ago

Chat with a park ranger changed how I shoot the Milky Way

I was out at Cherry Springs State Park last weekend and this ranger walked up and said I was using too high an ISO for the light conditions. He showed me his own shots at 1600 ISO versus my usual 3200 and the noise difference was huge. Anyone else get surprising tips from random people at dark sky spots?

20

black.amy•3d ago

Spent years stacking astro photos wrong until a pro showed me my error

I used to stack all my nebula shots with deep sky stacker on default settings, thinking more frames was always better. A guy at a star party last spring pointed out I was ignoring flat frames and throwing off all my color calibration. Do you prioritize getting flats every session or just wing it with bias frames like I used to?

2

dixon.amy•3d ago

Stacking photos with free software changed everything for me

I used to think you needed a $2,000 telescope and fancy software to get good deep sky shots. Been messing with astrophotography on and off for about 5 years, mostly just pointing my DSLR at the sky with a kit lens. My Orion nebula shots always came out as a blurry gray smudge. Then a guy on a forum told me to try DeepSkyStacker, which is free, and stack maybe 20 or 30 short exposures instead of one long one. Took me a weekend to figure out the workflow, but the first time I stacked 25 shots of Andromeda, the detail blew me away. Has anyone else found that stacking with cheap gear gives you way better results than you'd expect?

16

the_wesley•3d ago

I finally wrecked a perfect photo of the Orion Nebula right at the last second

Out at Cherry Springs State Park last winter. Had my mount tracking perfectly for 90 minutes. Then my dumb self bumped the tripod while reaching for hot chocolate. Ruined 45 stacked frames. Now I keep my drink on the ground, far away from the gear. Anyone else lost a good shot to a dumb mistake?

31

alice242•19d ago

Frustrated with all these stacked lunar images losing the real moon

I keep seeing people in here stacking 5000 frames of the moon and then sharpening it until it looks like a plastic ball, totally killing any natural texture on the terminator. Last week I tried to point out that a properly exposed single frame can show more actual detail than those overprocessed composites, and someone told me I just didn't understand the technique. Am I the only one who thinks a less processed image looks more like the real thing we actually see through a telescope?

10

willow_ellis•19d ago

Tried to shoot the Andromeda Galaxy with my phone last night

I figured my Galaxy S23 could handle it since it's got that night mode. After 20 minutes of holding my phone against a telescope eyepiece I got a blurry smudge that looked more like a dirty lens cap. Turns out astrophotography requires actual skill and a decent camera mount. Has anyone else tried this and gotten anything usable with just a phone?

18

thomas291•21d ago

Took me 3 tries to stack a decent Orion Nebula photo

I spent like 2 hours shooting 30 second subs of M42 with my Canon T7 on a tripod. Then I got home and realized my intervalometer was set wrong and only saved 8 frames. Had to drive back out to my dark spot near Lake Orion at 2 AM to redo the whole thing. Has anyone else lost a night of imaging because of a silly camera setting?

6

lily97•21d ago

Drove 2 hours to a dark sky spot and forgot my camera's memory card

I drove all the way out to Cherry Springs State Park in Pennsylvania last Saturday night. Got there around 10 PM with my telescope and DSLR all set up on the tripod. Went to take the first shot of the Andromeda Galaxy and my camera just said 'no card'. I felt so stupid sitting there in the dark with my gear but nothing to capture with. Ended up just looking through the eyepiece for a few hours which was actually pretty chill. Has anyone else driven somewhere for astrophotography and realized they forgot a key piece?

5

emeryfox•22d ago

Traded my tripod for a star tracker this spring and it's a different hobby now

For 6 years I just used my old manual EQ mount and did 30 second subs to avoid star trails. Finally saved up $800 for a proper iOptron SkyGuider in March. First night out at Cherry Springs State Park I got 4 minute exposures that looked better than anything I'd stacked before. Has anyone else waited way too long to upgrade a piece of gear and regretted not doing it sooner?

0

miller.avery•23d ago

That week in 2015 when I got 3 straight nights of clear skies at Cherry Springs

Man, that was something else. I was camping up in Cherry Springs State Park, PA for 5 days back in October 2015. First two nights were cloudy, almost gave up. Then night 3 through night 5 were crystal clear, no moon, zero light pollution. I got this shot of the Andromeda Galaxy with my old Canon 60D and a 135mm lens that still hangs on my wall. Haven't had a run like that since. Anyone else ever get a lucky stretch like that?

8

christopher_flores46•23d ago

Caught a meteor shower photo by accident at Sky Meadows Park last September

I was setting up my telescope to capture Jupiter when a random streak of light crossed my frame. The camera caught a bright fireball meteor that I didn't even see with my own eyes at the time. Has anyone else managed to snag a great shot while focused on something completely different?

-1

sean_park8•23d ago

That time my neighbor told me to just use my phone for astrophotography

My neighbor Dave saw me setting up my telescope and told me I was wasting my time, said modern phone cameras can shoot the moon better than any lens. I laughed it off but out of curiosity I tried it - propped my phone against a fence and snapped a picture. The result looked like a blurry egg with craters, not the crisp shots I get with my proper gear. Has anyone else had someone give you terrible astronomy advice that just made you sigh?

11

willow_ellis•25d ago

Just found out Pluto has a glacier bigger than Texas

Was reading a post on the NASA website last night that said Sputnik Planitia is about 1,000 km across. How do they even measure something that far away?

0

adams.faith•25d ago

Got told my Andromeda shots were 'too blue' at the astrophotography meetup

I always edited my galaxy photos to have a strong blue tint because I thought it looked dramatic. Then a guy at the local club showed me his neutral calibration and I realized I was masking the real hydrogen-alpha colors. How do you guys balance artistic color versus scientific accuracy in your edits?

14

skylercooper•29d ago

Debate: Did the dark sky preserve near Moab change how you shoot or just frustrate you?

I was out at the Canyonlands dark sky preserve last October during the new moon. Got there at 9 pm and it was so dark I literally tripped over my own tripod bag setting up. Now here's my thing - I used to just do single exposure widefield shots all the time. But after that night where I spent 45 minutes stacking 15 second subs because the milky way was so crisp, I started wondering if all that extra work is actually worth it for a forum post. Some guys I met there were all about the deep stack method with gradient removal and everything. Others just pulled out their phone and got a solid shot that looked good enough on Instagram. So which side are you on - do you go for the pro level processing that takes hours after the trip, or do you keep it simple and post what you see? I'm genuinely torn after that experience near Moab.

6

ryang65•1mo ago

Took me 5 years to admit those Hubble deep field images are not what people think

I used to roll my eyes whenever someone posted a Hubble Deep Field photo and called it a time machine. Felt like overselling to me. But after reading the actual paper from 1995 and seeing how they stacked 342 exposures over 10 days, I changed my mind. The math on the redshift values is solid - those galaxies are really 13 billion light years away. No tricks, just patient engineering. Has anyone else had a moment where a famous photo turned out to be more impressive than the hype?

23

jenny580•1mo ago

My telescope mount gave up mid-photo last night

Was out in the backyard trying to get the Orion Nebula. Been waiting for clear skies for like 2 weeks. Got maybe 15 minutes of data before the mount made a grinding noise and just stopped tracking. Turns out the gear teeth are stripped. I don't have the money for a new mount right now so I'm looking into replacing the gear set myself. Found a part online for $30. Anyone here successfully swapped out gears on a Celestron mount before?

19

rodriguez.jordan•1mo ago

My attempt to get a clean shot of the Orion Nebula turned into a 4 hour fight with dew

I drove out to the dark sky site near Flagstaff last Friday, perfect clear night. Got my camera and scope all set up, started a 3 minute exposure, and everything looked great. Then after about 30 minutes, I noticed the stars were getting fuzzy. My lens was completely fogged over with dew. I tried using a hair dryer from my car, but it just came back in 10 minutes. I didn't have a proper dew heater, so I spent the next few hours trying to rig up hand warmers with rubber bands, wiping the lens every few shots, and basically ruining my imaging run. I got maybe 20 minutes of usable data out of a planned 4 hour session. Has anyone found a cheap, reliable dew heater setup that actually works for a small refractor?

20

blair_allen•1mo ago

A sudden gust of wind almost sent my camera rig over the edge at the Grand Canyon

I was setting up for a long exposure of the Milky Way near the South Rim, my tripod legs extended on loose gravel. A strong, unexpected wind came through, tilting the whole setup toward the canyon drop. I had to lunge and grab the center column, barely keeping my Nikon D850 and 14mm lens from going over. Ever have a close call that made you rethink your gear's stability?

12

angelac63•1mo ago

PSA: I compared a $200 camera lens to a $1,000 one for deep sky shots, and the cheaper one won.

I spent a month shooting the Orion Nebula with an old manual 200mm f/4 lens I got for two hundred bucks, then rented the new 300mm f/2.8 autofocus model. The expensive lens gathered more light, but the final stacked image from the old lens was sharper because its simpler glass had less chromatic aberration. Has anyone else found that sometimes the fancy gear just adds problems you have to fix later?

18

the_mary•1mo ago

I drove out to the Joshua Tree dark sky area this weekend and saw something I can't explain

I was about an hour outside the park, just sitting in a camping chair with my binoculars. This bright, slow moving light crossed a huge part of the sky over maybe 15 minutes. It wasn't blinking like a plane, and it was way too high and steady to be a drone. I didn't get a photo, but I'm kicking myself now. Has anyone else spotted something like that near a dark sky site before?

22

hannah_williams•1mo ago

Pro tip: that $30 app for stacking star photos is a game changer

I used to think my phone pics of Orion were just blurry messes, but the app aligned 50 shots from my tripod in minutes. Anyone got tips for dealing with streetlight glow in a suburban backyard?

15

pat_park•1mo ago

I used to think those 'backyard' Jupiter photos were all fake

My buddy in Tucson showed me his $800 telescope setup and the raw files, and the detail was real. Anyone else have a moment like that with a specific target?