c/astronomy-photos

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emma_baker61•1d ago

My 6 inch Dobsonian vs my friend's 10 inch - the light gathering difference is insane

I took my 6 inch Dobsonian out to a dark sky site last Saturday and my buddy brought his 10 inch. We both looked at M31 and I could see the core and a hint of dust lanes, but his view? Full spiral structure, like a photo in the eyepiece. The difference in light gathering (2.8x more area, right?) was way more dramatic than I expected. Do you think aperture really makes that much of a jump, or am I just bad at observing? I'm considering saving up for an upgrade now, but I don't want to haul around something huge if the gain isn't worth it. Has anyone else compared side by side and felt like their scope was suddenly useless?

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jordan_hill•3d ago

Noticed a big shift in how the Orion Nebula is processed in photos since 2018

I was looking through some old astrophotography forums and saw Orion shots from around 2018-2019 compared to now. Back then everyone was going for those bright, almost neon colors, but lately I see way more people pulling out the faint dust lanes and keeping the core natural. Is that just better stacking software, or did the community just decide that subtle looks better?

6

zara_sanchez•5d ago

Hot take: don't stack your telescope filters like I did

I thought I was being clever stacking a moon filter and a light pollution filter together to get a better look at Jupiter through my 8-inch dob in my backyard in Tucson. All I got was a blurry green blob that made me think something was wrong with my mirror. Turns out stacking filters on a planetary target just kills your contrast and sharpness. Learned this after 2 hours of frustration and a call to the guy at the local astronomy shop. He said one filter is plenty for viewing, and stacking them is only for specific astrophotography rigs. Has anyone else made this rookie mistake with their eyepieces?

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fiona_kim97•6d ago

Warning: that viral Orion Nebula photo from last week has a hidden satellite trail

I zoomed in on the full resolution version and found a faint streak right through the Trapezium cluster that nobody mentioned. Anyone else catch this in their own astrophotos from that same night?

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fionafoster•6d ago

Warning: My $50 star tracker mount was a total disaster

I spent $50 on a cheap star tracker mount from Amazon to get sharp long exposure shots of the Orion Nebula. It wobbled so bad after 30 seconds that every photo had star trails no matter how I balanced it. Has anyone else dealt with budget mounts falling apart or is there a decent one under $200 that actually works?

5

singh.harper•7d ago

One piece of feedback that changed how I shoot the Milky Way

I posted a photo of the Milky Way over a barn about 6 months ago and someone said my foreground was too dark. They suggested I take a separate exposure just for the ground and blend them. I tried it that weekend and the difference was huge. Now I always shoot a 2 minute foreground shot at ISO 800 and blend it with my sky stack. Has anyone else found a good trick for balancing light in astro landscapes?

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wader71•9d ago

TIL I was framing my night sky shots wrong for 2 years

I was at Big Bend National Park last month trying to get the Milky Way. Kept getting blurry stars even with a tripod. Then a guy walked up and asked why my shutter speed was so long. He showed me the 500 rule right there. I had been using 30 second exposures on a 50mm lens. Should have been closer to 10 seconds. Has anyone else had a basic rule slip past them for way too long?

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lee689•10d ago

I spent $200 on a star tracker and honestly wish I hadn't

Everyone talks like a star tracker is the only way to get decent deep sky shots, but after three nights fighting with polar alignment I just went back to stacking short exposures from a fixed tripod. I get 90% of the same result without the headache. Has anyone else ditched a tracker and been happier?

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emma96•18d ago

Stacking photos of Andromeda took me 4 HOURS to get right

I spent forever trying to figure out why my stacked images looked blurry. Turns out I was using the wrong alignment setting in DSS, wasted 4 hours that could have been spent actually capturing data. Did you guys figure out your stacking settings fast or did it take you ages too?

2

the_alex•19d ago

Widefield vs closeup on the Orion Nebula - I chose wrong

I spent a clear night last winter trying to decide between a 135mm lens for the whole constellation or a 500mm scope to zoom in on the nebula core. Went with the 500mm because I wanted detail, but ended up with a blurry mess because my tracking mount couldnt handle the longer focal length. The 2 minute subs were all streaky and I wasted 4 hours freezing my fingers off. Anyone else regret going too narrow too fast with their gear?

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brooke_jones•19d ago

Looking at that nebula photo from Kitt Peak last Tuesday really changed how I see the night sky

I was just browsing the sub and saw that sharp image of the Orion Nebula taken from Kitt Peak last week. It hit me that those fuzzy blobs I can barely see through my cheap backyard scope are actually giant clouds of gas where stars are being born. Three years ago I would have just scrolled past and thought it was a cool picture. Now I'm sitting here wondering if anyone else has that moment where a photo makes you feel really small but in a good way?

5

val_shah•21d ago

Just hit 10,000 stars in one astro photo and had to double check

I was stacking frames of the Orion Nebula last night and my software showed 10,247 stars detected in a single sub. That seemed way too high so I counted a few random sections and averaged it out. Turns out even with my modest 80mm scope, a 2-minute exposure picks up way more points of light than I expected. Has anyone else been surprised by how many faint stars their setup can actually resolve?

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barbara_jenkins66•22d ago

Ran into a guy at a star party in Arizona who showed me how to stack 30-second exposures on a free app.

He pulled out his phone and walked me through DeepSkyStacker right there under the dark sky, and I finally got a decent shot of the Orion Nebula without spending a dime on fancy software, anyone else discover a free tool that changed how they shoot?

1

betty_perry24•25d ago

Hot take: That 'Andromeda through a telescope' photo everyone loves is staged and here's why

I keep seeing people post those super zoomed-in Andromeda shots claiming they're single exposures through an 8-inch scope, but there's no way because Andromeda is actually pretty small visually through most amateur gear. Am I missing something or are people just stacking 50 exposures and calling it a single shot to sound cool?

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jenny_lee•25d ago

Random reddit comment made me fix my star stacking

Somebody said my Milky Way mosaic had tram lines from not dithering enough between frames. I went from 5 pixel dithers to 20 pixel ones and the gradient literally vanished overnight.

16

maxl93•27d ago

Driving home from Sedona and noticed something weird about the sky

I was coming back from a job near Flagstaff last month and pulled over near Oak Creek Canyon around 10pm. The sky was so clear you could see the Milky Way just pouring across, but what really got me was how different it looked compared to when I was a kid. Back then, you could see that same river of stars even out in the suburbs, not just way out in the desert. Has anyone else noticed how much light pollution has crept into places that used to be dark?

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wilson.olivia•28d ago

Read a forum post claiming Hubble images are 'overprocessed' and it made me laugh

Some guy on Reddit said Hubble photos are basically fake because NASA tweaks the colors. I tried explaining that raw space data doesn't look like anything to the naked eye, you have to stretch the signal to see the detail. He called me a shill. Ever tried explaining basic image processing to someone who thinks they're smarter than astrophotographers?

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baker.christopher•1mo ago

Just realized stacking ND filters beats buying a variable one

I read a post from a guy who shoots Milky Way photos near Flagstaff. He said he tried three different variable ND filters and all of them gave him weird X cross patterns in his images. He switched to stacking a 6-stop and a 10-stop screw-on filter and said the color shift was way less noticeable. I tried it last weekend on a lake shot near my town and he was right. The stacked combo cost me about 45 bucks total. Anyone else ditch the variable ND filters for stacked ones?

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troyknight•1mo ago

The one thing that finally made my Milky Way shots pop

I spent like 2 years stacking astro photos and wondering why my Milky Way always looked muddy and flat compared to other people's stuff. Then a guy on YouTube casually mentioned that he darkens the black point in his raw converter before even touching the curves. I tried it last month on a shot from a dark site near Flagstaff and the difference was immediate. The dust lanes actually had depth instead of just being a gray smear. Anyone else been doing this the whole time and just never said anything?

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bailey.jennifer•1mo ago

Went back to a photo I took from my backyard 3 years ago and noticed something I totally missed

I was looking through old files last month and found this shot of the Orion Nebula I took from my driveway in Phoenix. At the time I thought it was just okay, but zooming in now I can see a faint little arc of gas I never caught before. It's not much, but it made me wonder how many other hidden details are sitting in our old photos. Has anyone else found surprises in their old astro shots?

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julia_carter61•1mo ago

Just realized most astro photos from the desert have this weird warm tint

I was looking through my shots from a trip to the Mojave last October and every single one has this orange glow near the horizon even though the sky was pitch black. It took me a while to figure out it was light bouncing off all that dry dirt and dust in the air. Anyone else notice this when shooting in arid places?

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logan_wood•1mo ago

Showerthought: That Orion photo I took last week would have blown my mind 3 years ago but now it feels average

3 years ago I spent $400 on a used DSLR and a tripod to get a blurry blob of the Andromeda galaxy, but last week my phone mounted to a $50 tracker pulled out way more detail than that old setup ever could, what little piece of gear made the biggest jump for you?

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anthonynelson•1mo ago

Stacking 200 moon shots taught me something about focus

I kept getting blurry edges until I realized I was refocusing on the wrong crater each time. Anyone else drop their first 100 frames because of a tiny focus ring shift?

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anthonynelson•1mo ago

The night I realized my telescope was out of focus for 3 months

I kept getting these blurry shots of Jupiter and couldn't figure out why. My neighbor Dave came over last Tuesday and asked if I'd ever checked the collimation on my reflector. I thought 'collimation' was some fancy term I didn't need to worry about, you know? Turns out my primary mirror was way off, and after 5 minutes with a cheap laser collimator, the image snapped right into crystal clear focus. Has anyone else made that same dumb mistake with their scope?

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ivan_harris•1mo ago

Tried stacking 200 photos of the moon last night and my laptop just gave up

I was out on my balcony around 11pm trying to get a decent shot of the lunar surface with my Canon T7. Thought I'd try stacking like 200 frames in Registax to really bring out the craters. But after about 30 minutes of processing, my 5 year old Dell just froze up completely and I had to force restart it lol. Ended up using only 50 frames instead and it turned out okay I guess. The detail on the rims of Copernicus crater was still pretty sharp though. Has anyone else had their computer choke on a big stack like that?