That moment I realized my backyard was a terrible spot for astrophotography

Last Tuesday I spent 3 hours setting up my telescope in the yard, only to have my neighbor's motion-sensor light ruin every 30-second exposure I tried to take. Has anyone else had to reschedule their whole night around streetlights or porch lamps?

2 comments

2 Comments

julia9221d ago

Wow, seriously? Three hours of setup and then you just gave up because of a neighbor's light? lol I mean yeah that sucks but you could have just moved your scope to a different spot in the yard or worked around it. Motion sensors are annoying but they don't stay on forever. Like maybe just wait 30 seconds for it to cycle off again? I'm not trying to be harsh but it feels like a pretty minor thing to cancel your whole night over. Streetlights and porch lamps are just part of life when you live in a neighborhood, you gotta adapt. People act like astrophotography is impossible if there's one tiny light source nearby but I've seen amazing shots taken from city rooftops. Sounds like you just need to plan better next time instead of blaming the light.

troy_ross21d ago

Man I read this article the other day about a guy who built a little shield out of cardboard and black tape to block his neighbor's light and it actually worked pretty well. @julia92 I get what you're saying about adapting but some motion sensors are super sensitive and will trip every time a cat walks by or a leaf blows, so you'd spend half the night just waiting for it to shut off again. That three hour setup sounds rough too, I've been there with trying to get everything leveled and focused just right only to have some random thing screw it up.