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?

3 comments

3 Comments

norag5511d ago

Man I had to stop myself from jumping in when someone called the moon landing footage fake.

abby_scott11d ago

My buddy actually had a similar thing happen at a party once. He's an amateur astronomer with a decent telescope, and some guy tried to tell him the moon landing was filmed in a studio. My friend just pulled out his phone and showed a video he took of the moon through his scope, pointing out the landing sites you can actually see. The guy shut up pretty quick, but my friend said the whole experience just left him exhausted. It's like, some people are so set in their beliefs that no amount of evidence will change their mind. Your mileage may vary, but in my experience, it's usually better to just step back and let them have their moment.

victor_adams9511d ago

Right, so @norag55, I actually kind of get where the nebula guy was coming from, but the work behind those shots is insane. Stacking hundreds of frames just to pull out color that your eye can't even see takes serious patience and skill. Calling it a blurry smudge is like calling a Formula 1 car just a noisy go-kart after someone spent months tuning the engine. It's easy to miss the hours of processing when you're just looking at the final result.