c/astronomy-photos

Vent: Woke up to my telescope mount pointing at the ground at 4 AM

Set up my rig on a hill outside of Bend to catch the Orion Nebula. Tracked fine all night until a gust of wind around 3:45 AM flipped the tripod over. Camera hit a rock and the lens cracked. Lost 3 hours of exposures. Has anyone else had a nighttime wind gust ruin their session like that?

Debate: raw stacked vs processed stacked deep sky photos - which tells the truth?

I spent last weekend shooting M31 and ended up with two versions - a lightly processed stack that kept all the natural noise, and a heavily processed one that smoothed everything out but lost some faint details. Which do you think shows a more accurate picture of what's out there, or does accuracy not matter in astrophotography?

Tried to stack photos of the Orion Nebula and my laptop crashed 4 hours in

Was out near Joshua Tree last month with my old Celestron scope and a Sony A6000. Got about 200 good frames of M42, but my laptop froze during DeepSkyStacker and I lost all of it. Ended up just eyeballing a single 30 second exposure in GIMP and it looked like garbage. Anyone else have their whole night's work vanish like that?

That one guy at the star party who told me my telescope was 'wrong'

I was out at a dark sky site near Moab last July, just setting up my 8 inch dob. This older dude walks over, looks at my rig, and says 'you know you're supposed to use a refractor for deep sky, right?' in this super condescending tone. I just laughed and said 'tell that to my Andromeda shots.' He walked off muttering. I still think about that sometimes. Anyone else run into the 'telescope police' at public viewing nights?

Just noticed the Pillars of Creation photo from 1995 vs 2022 comparison...

I was scrolling through NASA's website last night and it blew my mind how much sharper the Webb image is, you can actually see new stars forming where Hubble just showed fuzzy gas. Did anyone else get that weird feeling looking at them side by side?

Overheard someone say the Orion Nebula looks like a blurry smudge

Was at a coffee shop last week and heard this guy tell his friend the Orion Nebula pic they were looking at was just a blurry smudge. Said anyone with a decent phone could do better. I wanted to chime in so bad but held back. That pic probably took like 4 hours of stacking and processing to get that level of detail. Made me realize how easy it is to underestimate the work behind those deep space shots. Has anyone else had to bite their tongue when someone trashes an astrophoto?

Can we stop calling every star trail photo a 'light painting'?

I watched a guy at a meetup last month spend 20 minutes explaining how his 30-second exposure of the Milky Way was a 'light painting' and I had to bite my tongue because light painting actually involves moving a light source in front of the lens, not just pointing a camera at the sky.

My attempt at photographing the Milky Way last week was a total washout

Drove out to a dark spot about 45 minutes from town around 1am, set up my tripod and everything. But I forgot to check the moon phase and it was like 80% full, just washed out all the detail. Then a car pulled up and just sat there with their brights on for 20 minutes. Does anyone have tips for scouting locations that stay dark and empty?

Pro tip on capturing the Milky Way with a cheap lens

I was out at Cherry Springs State Park in Pennsylvania last summer trying to get the Milky Way with my old 50mm f/1.8 lens. The issue was I kept getting these weird star trails even after just 10 seconds of exposure. Turns out my tripod head had a tiny wobble I never noticed inside the city. Took me three nights and a $5 hex key to finally tighten it down and get crisp shots. Anyone else ever get fooled by a loose tripod?

Wasted $200 on a star tracker mount that barely worked for my DSLR

Bought this cheap star tracker off Amazon last spring for a trip to Big Bend. Thought itd help me get those long exposure shots of the milky way. Thing wobbled so bad even on a calm night every frame had trailing. Shouldve just saved up for a Sky-Watcher or something. Anyone else get burned by a budget astro gadget?

Question about Orion Nebula photo settings

A guy in my local astronomy club told me to shoot at ISO 3200 for 30 seconds each. I tried it on my Canon T7 with a 70-300mm lens. Got nothing but a blown out mess. Why does he swear by those settings when dark sky conditions matter more?

I finally looked at the exposure time on that famous Hubble deep field photo

Saw someone mention in a comment thread that the Hubble Ultra Deep Field took over 11 days of total exposure time. I figured it was a few hours maybe, not almost two straight weeks of just staring at one tiny dot of black sky. The image covers an area smaller than a grain of sand held at arm's length. That blew my mind because I always thought those galaxies were just captured in a quick shot. Looked it up on the Hubble site to confirm and yeah, it's 11.3 days spread across 400 orbits. Makes me wonder how many more tiny spots in the sky hold similar views if we just pointed at them long enough. Has anyone else been surprised by how long these deep field exposures actually take?

Comet Neowise brought out a neighbor I barely knew

Back in July 2020 I set up my little 80mm refractor in the front yard to catch Comet Neowise before it faded away. An older guy from three houses down came walking over around 9pm, shuffling in his slippers with a coffee mug in hand. He just stood there quiet for a minute, then asked if he could take a look. I let him use the eyepiece and he stayed for maybe 20 minutes, not saying much. When he finally pulled back, he had tears in his eyes and said it reminded him of watching the Hale-Bopp comet with his wife back in 1997 before she passed. He thanked me three times and walked home slow. I think about that moment every time I drag gear outside. Has anyone else had a stranger share something personal over a telescope? That kind of thing make you feel more connected to your own neighborhood.

Read about stacking exposures and tried it on Orion last night

I saw a post where someone said you need at least 60 seconds of total exposure time to get good detail on deep sky objects. So I stacked 12 five-second shots of Orion with free software and actually saw the nebula structure. Has anyone else had better luck with shorter subs versus fewer long ones?

Finally tried stacking Jupiter images after months of doubting it

I always thought stacking was just overhyped processing till I gave AutoStakkert a shot on my July 15th data from a suburban backyard in Phoenix. Three minutes of video turned into a single frame that showed the Great Red Spot way clearer than any single shot I ever took. The detail blew my mind honestly, like I was seeing a whole new planet. Anybody else have that one processing trick they were stubborn about trying?

Shoutout to the person who proved me wrong about smartphone astrophotography

I used to think you needed a $2000 telescope setup to get decent space photos. Then a guy at a meetup in Denver showed me a stack of 200 phone shots of the Andromeda Galaxy he took with just a tripod and a Pixel phone. He used a free app called DeepSkyCamera to control the exposure and stacked them in Sequator on his laptop. The final image actually showed the dust lanes and it blew my mind. Now I'm wondering if I've been gatekeeping this hobby for no reason. Has anyone else flipped their opinion on phone-based astrophotography after seeing real results?

Heads up on light pollution at Cherry Springs State Park in PA

Went 4 nights straight with no good astro photos in Joshua Tree

Drove out there last Monday thinking the new moon would be perfect. Got set up around midnight and then the wind kicked up so bad my tripod was shaking even with sandbags. Night two was partly cloudy but I waited 3 hours for a break that never came. Night three I actually got some shots but when I got home and looked at them on my computer every single one had star trails because I forgot to check my shutter speed. Fourth night I just sat in my car eating gas station nachos and watching the clouds roll in. Has anyone else had a whole trip just feel cursed like that?

People keep overprocessing nebula photos until they look like cartoon soup

I was scrolling through the top posts this week and half of them have that same blown out orange and blue color palette where the details just get mashed into a blur. I get that stretching the data brings out faint stuff, but there's a line between enhancing and just cranking saturation to 11. I saw one of Orion that looked more like a 90s poster than actual gas clouds. How do you tell when a photo has gone past real into fake without starting a fight in the comments?

Just watched a time-lapse of the Andromeda Galaxy colliding with the Milky Way and it blew my mind

I came across this simulation by NASA from a few years back, and it shows how in about 4.5 billion years our galaxy and Andromeda will start merging. The photos they use to predict it are from Hubble and ground telescopes over decades. I always thought it would be a huge crash, but apparently stars are so far apart that most won't even hit each other. The sky would look totally different though, like a giant swirl of stars. Has anyone else seen those composite images of merging galaxies from the Hubble archive?

Finally got a sharp Andromeda shot after 4 tries with my beginner setup

I've been messing with astrophotography for about 3 months now with just a DSLR and a basic tripod. My first 3 attempts at Andromeda were just blurry smudges - disappointed doesn't cover it. Then I tried this trick I saw in a YouTube comment: took 100 shorter exposures at 2 seconds each instead of 10 long ones. Stacked them in a free program called DeepSkyStacker and it actually worked. The galaxy core came through with way more detail than I expected. Anyone else had luck with stacking short exposures for galaxies?

PSA: Stop using your phone to take pics of the moon through a telescope

Honestly, I spent 6 months getting blurry moon shots with my iPhone held up to the eyepiece. I tried 5 different camera apps and even taped my phone to the scope once. Ngl, a cheap $15 mount from Amazon that clips onto the eyepiece changed everything. My crater detail went from a fuzzy blob to actually seeing the Tycho impact rays. Anyone else struggle with phone-to-telescope alignment tricks?

I visited the McDonald Observatory last weekend and something felt off about their night sky photos

I drove out to the McDonald Observatory in West Texas last Saturday for their public viewing night, but every astro photo they displayed in the visitor center looked way too processed and fake. The colors on those nebula shots were cranked up so high they looked like cartoons instead of real space. Am I the only one who thinks observatories should show raw or minimally edited images to keep things honest? Please share your experience.

Spent 6 months using the wrong filter for nebula shots until a guy at a star party pointed it out

I was out at Cherry Springs last fall with my new rig, feeling pretty good about my Orion nebula captures. This older guy walks by, looks at my screen, and says "why's your core so blown out?" I had been using a cheap UV filter I bought on Amazon thinking it reduced light pollution. He laughed and handed me his H-alpha filter to try. Night and day difference. I felt like an idiot but at least I learned. Anyone else start out with totally wrong gear and not know for way too long?

Got a $40 planetary camera and the moon photos blew my mind

I was super skeptical a cheap camera could beat my phone, but the detail in those crater shadows is unreal. Anyone else try a budget camera and get hooked on lunar shots?