c/astronomy-photos

17

the_joseph•2d ago

Tried stacking 30 second exposures of M31 and got my first clear spiral arms

I have been dabbling with astrophotography for about a year now, mostly just taking moon shots and the Orion nebula. Last weekend I decided to try my hand at the Andromeda Galaxy with my DSLR and a cheap tracking mount. I shot 45 frames at 30 seconds each, ISO 1600, with my 200mm lens. When I stacked them in DeepSkyStacker and stretched the histogram, I could actually see the spiral arms. I was shocked because I always thought you needed thousands of dollars in gear to get that kind of detail. What I learned is that dark frames and a properly calibrated polar alignment matter way more than expensive glass. Has anyone else had a similar breakthrough with budget gear?

5

ward.fiona•2d ago

Vent: Spent 2 hours stacking 3 minute exposures before I realized my interval timer was off

I was out at a dark spot near Lake Elsinore trying to get the Orion Nebula. Set my intervalometer to take 3 minute subs like always, but I must have bumped the dial. Came home, stacked everything in DeepSkyStacker and got pure garbage. Checked the file metadata and each exposure was only 30 seconds. Wasted a whole clear night and now it's supposed to rain for a week. Has anyone else had a setup go wrong because of one stupid setting you didn't double check?

11

rivera.holly•3d ago

My telescope mount gave out during a Perseid meteor shower setup last August

I had everything ready in my backyard in Denver, even brought out a chair and coffee, then the motor on my old Celestron mount just started grinding and stopped tracking. Turns out the gears were stripped from years of use, and I spent the whole night manually nudging it while missing half the meteors. Anyone know a good replacement mount under $500 that won't crap out during a big event?

15

the_charlie•4d ago

Finally got a good night shot of the Milky Way after 4 cloudy weeks in a row

I've been trying to capture the Milky Way from my backyard in Tucson since early March and every single night was either clouds or a bright moon. Last Thursday I checked the forecast around 10 PM and saw it was clear with zero humidity predicted. I ran out with my old DSLR and tripod, dialed in the settings from memory, and actually got a clean shot with the core visible before 2 AM. The amount of stars that popped out made me realize I'd been way too impatient about waiting for perfect conditions. Anyone else have one of those nights where everything just clicked after a long dry spell?

8

the_charlie•6d ago

Hit my 10,000th deep sky object last night and it was kinda anticlimactic

I've been logging everything I observe for about 7 years now, and my 10,000th object was this faint little galaxy in Coma Berenices that I almost skipped. Spent all night setting up the scope and waiting for perfect seeing, and when I finally got the number it just felt like another routine capture. Anyone else hit a big milestone in this hobby and feel like it didn't quite live up to the hype?

9

kai463•6d ago

Shoutout to the Hubble Deep Field image that blew my mind

I just found out that one tiny patch of sky in the Hubble Deep Field, which looks empty to the naked eye, contains over 3,000 galaxies and some of them are 13 billion years old - has anyone else felt small after looking at that photo?

2

craig.grant•6d ago

Tried stacking my phone on the eyepiece for a moon shot and actually got something usable

I've been messing around with taking photos through my 8 inch dob for a while, mostly just holding my phone up and hoping for the best. Last night I decided to try one of those cheap phone adapters I had sitting in my drawer for like 6 months. First few tries were blurry, but I adjusted the focus on the telescope itself and got a clear enough image of the craters near the terminator line. It's not professional quality by any stretch, but it's way better than I expected for a $15 piece of plastic. Has anyone else found a trick for getting sharper shots with a smartphone?

30

davis.dakota•8d ago

Spent $80 on a planetary filter that turned Jupiter into a blurry smudge

I bought this Orion 1.25 inch planetary filter off Amazon thinking it would sharpen my views of Jupiter's bands, but it just made everything look like a watercolor painting. After 3 nights of tweaking focus and swapping eyepieces, I realized the filter was defective and I'd passed the return window by a day. Anyone else get burned by gear that looked good on paper but flopped in the field?

17

clark.faith•12d ago

Stargazed with new binoculars got totally lost.

Bought a pair of 15x70s last week to check out the Pleiades. Sky was clear but I couldn't find a single cluster because the field of view is so tiny. Anyone have a trick for aiming these things without a finder scope?

23

lily_schmidt53•12d ago

My deep sky stack took 4 hours to process because of one dumb setting

I spent all night shooting M31 with my Celestron 8SE and then sat down to stack it in DeepSkyStacker, thinking it would be 20 minutes tops. Turns out I had dithering turned off so all 120 subs had walking noise that took forever to fix in Photoshop. Has anyone else had a simple setting blow up their whole processing time like that?

3

rivera.jake•16d ago

Tried a star tracker for my camera and ended up with a completely ruined first night

I got a used Sky-Watcher Star Adventurer from a guy on Facebook Marketplace for $150 last week. I set it up in my backyard in Tucson and spent like an hour just trying to get the polar alignment right through that tiny little scope. But I made a MASSIVE mistake - I didn't tighten the clutch on the ball head enough before I started my first 2 minute exposure. So the camera slowly slid down during the shot and I got these crazy blurred streaks that look like alien signal lines across the whole frame. I was so mad I almost threw the whole rig in the trash. But then I realized it was my own dumb fault for rushing setup and not checking everything twice. Has anyone else had a star tracker session go completely sideways because you skipped one little step?

11

blair_lewis85•18d ago

Rant: I hiked to a dark sky site near Cherry Springs and everyone was on their phones

I drove 3 hours out to the Cherry Springs State Park in Pennsylvania last month for astrophotography. Setup my gear, let my eyes adjust for 20 minutes, and three people had their phone screens blasting at full brightness checking Instagram. Completely ruined the dark adaptation for everyone within 50 feet. Has anyone else dealt with clueless people ruining a night of long exposure shots?

24

janaw11•19d ago

Lost a whole night of Andromeda shots to a loose tripod leg

Was out at Cherry Springs last weekend, set up my gear around 10 PM. Got home and checked the files. Every single 3 minute exposure had star trails. Took me an hour to realize the leg lock on my old Manfrotto was barely finger tight. Had to throw out 40 subs. Has anyone else had a gear failure ruin a night?

20

the_wade•19d ago

That car dealership calendar shot really bothered me

I was scrolling through my feed yesterday and saw the astronomy photo of the month that a local Chevy dealership posted. It was this stacked image of the Milky Way but they clearly just cranked the saturation to 200% and called it a day. The stars had this weird blue halo around them that made it look fake. I get that they want something flashy for their showroom wall but it just makes the whole hobby look like clickbait. If you're going to share space photos at least get the basics right or hire someone who knows what they're doing. Anybody else seen bad astrophotography being used for advertising around your town?

29

lane.joel•20d ago

Stacking 100 short exposures beat my single 5-minute shot every time

I spent six months taking single long exposures of the Orion Nebula thinking that was the only way to get detail. Then a guy at the local observatory showed me his setup where he stacks 30 second shots instead. I tried it with 100 frames on M42 and the difference was night and day way less noise and way more nebula structure. Has anyone else found that stacking short subs outperforms long exposures for bright targets?

-1

the_kai•20d ago

Got my first telescope photo of a nebula Saturday night, and it came out blurry

I was out at Cherry Springs State Park in Pennsylvania around 2 AM trying to capture the Orion Nebula with my beginner setup. My tripod was a bit shaky from the wind, and I think I fumbled the focus knob right before the shot. Ended up with this soft blob instead of the crisp image I saw online... has anyone else dealt with wind ruining their long exposure shots?

23

jordanm19•21d ago

That $2,500 tracking mount I bought on a whim was a complete waste of money

I got into astrophotography about a year ago and thought I needed a fancy tracking mount to take good pictures. I dropped $2,500 on a used one from some guy on Craigslist who said it was barely used. Turns out the gears were worn and it couldn't hold a steady lock for more than 30 seconds. All my photos came out blurry and I spent 3 weekends trying to fix it before I gave up and sold it for $800. Now I just use a simple tripod and take shorter exposures of the moon and planets. Has anyone else gotten burned by buying used gear from strangers?

6

the_joseph•21d ago

My best night of astrophotography in two years happened last Tuesday

I've been messing with this hobby for about four years now and mostly get cloudy skies or bad tracking. Last Tuesday the forecast said clear skies until 3 AM so I set up my rig in the backyard around 9 PM. I was shooting the Orion Nebula with my old Celestron and a DSLR I bought used off Craigslist. Everything just clicked that night. I got 120 usable frames with no drift and the focus was perfect on the first try. Stacked it in DeepSkyStacker the next morning and it was the sharpest image I've ever captured. I could see the dark nebula lanes so clearly it made me double check if I messed something up. Anyone else have one of those nights where the stars just line up?

21

diana_moore75•23d ago

Tried stacking 20 long exposure shots of Orion and got a blurry mess instead of a crisp photo

I spent 3 hours taking 20 frames of the Orion Nebula with my DSLR last night and when I stacked them in DeepSkyStacker, the stars came out as little streaks because I forgot to enable the telescope's tracking. Lesson learned: always double check your mount alignment before you start, has anyone else ruined a night's work on a dumb setting?

16

rosel83•26d ago

Tried stacking my telescope shots without drizzle stacking

Did it last Saturday night on the Orion Nebula. Ended up with weird pixel artifacts all over the core. Has anyone else had better luck with a different stacking method?

1

the_kai•27d ago

My opinion on tracking the moon through a telephoto lens did a 180 last Wednesday

I spent three years swearing that widefield shots of the moon were the only way to go, then a friend showed me his single frame from a 600mm lens that caught every crater rim and shadow detail. That one image convinced me to dig out my old telephoto and give it a try, and now I can't stop shooting close-ups. Has anyone else had a sudden shift like this where a single photo changed how you approach the moon?

23

zarapalmer•28d ago

That time my telescope mount failed during the Perseids

I was out in the Mojave Desert last August, all set up to capture the Perseid meteor shower. About 45 minutes in, the tracking motor on my mount just seized up completely, leaving the camera pointed at the ground. I ended up ditching the tripod and just hand-holding my DSLR on a beanbag for the rest of the night, got some surprisingly decent wide shots of the Milky Way instead. Anyone else ever have a gear failure force you to improvise on the fly?

11

the_jason•28d ago

Stumbled on a comet photo from 3 years ago near Joshua Tree that I forgot about

I was digging through my old hard drive last night and found a photo I took of Comet NEOWISE from July 2020 out in the desert near Joshua Tree National Park. The sky was so dark you could see the dust tail stretching across the frame without any editing. Has anyone else had luck shooting comets from light-polluted areas or is it always a drive to the middle of nowhere?

7

davis.diana•28d ago

Shoutout to the guy who let me use his telescope at a dark sky site last weekend

I was out at Cherry Springs State Park in Pennsylvania last Saturday night with just my binoculars and a star chart, feeling pretty dumb. This older gentleman with a homemade Dobsonian saw me struggling to find Andromeda and actually waved me over to look through his scope. He spent like 15 minutes explaining how he built the mount from plywood and a porch swing hinge, which I thought was pretty wild. Anyway, the view of M31 was amazing, and now I'm wondering if I should try building my own telescope instead of dropping $800 on a store-bought one. Has anyone here built a dobsonian before and regretted it?

11

quinnbailey•28d ago

Just counted 4,827 stars in a single 30-second exposure from my backyard

I was messing around with my Canon and a cheap tripod near Tucson last weekend and the number blew my mind. Has anyone else tried manually counting stars in their photos or am I just that bored?