My neighbor Dave totally changed how I look at star photos

Last Saturday I was showing Dave some shots I took of the Orion Nebula with my 8 inch dob. He looked at them for a minute and said 'you know those are just pretty dots to me unless you tell me what I'm supposed to see.' That hit me because I realized I always just share the prettiest pictures without explaining the cool stuff in them. Now I'm thinking about adding arrows or labels to my next posts - does anyone else do that or just me?

2 comments

2 Comments

wood.john1mo agoMost Upvoted

Honestly I started doing that a while back and it made a huge difference. People actually stop and ask questions instead of just scrolling past. Just keep the labels simple like "Orion Nebula center" or "Flame Nebula" so it doesn't get too cluttered.

bettyk531mo ago

Hang on, I gotta call BS on this one, @wood.john. I mean, people actually stop and ask questions? In my experience, most folks just grunt and keep swiping like they're hunting for a better deal on Amazon. I've been labeling my shots for years, and the only question I ever got was "Is that a real picture or did you Photoshop it?" Maybe your crowd is just friendlier than mine, or you've got some kind of magical labels that hypnotize people. Either way, I'm impressed, but I'll believe it when I see it happen at my next star party.