c/astronomy-photos

Appreciation post: that one guy who corrected my star stack in Tucson

Random dude at a dark sky site last March spent 20 minutes showing me my flats were overcorrecting, and my Orion shots finally look decent. He just walked up and said 'your calibration is off, want me to show you?' never got his name. Has anyone else had a stranger save their whole processing workflow like that?

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oliverbailey•6d ago

PSA: Cheap star tracker mount ruined my $900 camera lens

Bought a no-name tracker off Amazon for $120 last month to shoot Andromeda. The clutch slipped at 30 seconds in and my 200mm lens swung straight into the tripod leg. Cracked the front element clean through, lens is toast. Anyone else had a budget mount fail on them? Wish I'd just rented a proper Sky-Watcher for the weekend instead.

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noahhall•10d ago

One comment about star colors changed how I shoot night skies

About 2 years ago someone on here pointed out that my Andromeda shots looked like a blueberry smoothie. I was pushing saturation way too hard, especially the blue channel. They suggested I rely on the camera's raw data and only tweak the white balance, not the color curves. I went back to some old files from September 2021 taken near Jerome, Arizona and reprocessed them with that in mind. The stars actually show their true warm and cool tones now, and the galaxy looks way more natural. Has anyone else had to unlearn a heavy processing habit like that?

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the_stella•12d ago

That night I cropped the stars out and it made the shot way better

Everyone posts these ultra wide field shots with the milky way arching across everything and I used to think more sky always meant more wow. But last month I was editing a shot from Joshua Tree and someone in the astro group on here said the stars were stealing focus from the rock formations. I cropped out about 60% of the sky and just left the core plus those big boulders and honestly it changed how I process every photo now. The composition felt tighter and the colors popped more because there was less clutter. I still love wide shots but now I ask myself what the actual subject is before I hit export. Has anyone else gone through a phase where less sky made their photos stronger? I'm curious if it's just me or if this is a common shift.

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lunaw72•16d ago

That overprocessed nebula photo I posted last week, here's what I do now

Used to crank up saturation and sharpening until every space photo looked like a neon poster, you know? Last week I posted a shot of the Orion Nebula and someone called me out for the stars having weird halos around them. I compared my old edit to the raw stacked frames and the difference was honestly embarrassing. Now I keep the processing minimal, just basic curves and noise reduction, and I check the star edges at 100% zoom before I upload. Anyone else ever get caught overdoing it and had to redo their whole workflow?

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jamiegreen•16d ago

My grandpa's star chart advice finally clicked after 14 years

My grandpa's star chart advice finally clicked after 14 years. He told me back in 2011 to always shoot the moon with my telescope before trying deep sky objects, said it builds calibration habits. Last month at Cherry Springs State Park I finally understood, the glow messes with your eyes and focus more than any book explains. I wasted a whole night on Andromeda before realizing his tip was about patience, not the moon itself. Anyone else get a piece of advice that made zero sense until a specific night ruined your session?

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jakeperry•17d ago

Stacking 200 lunar shots took me 6 hours, should I have just used fewer frames?

I spent a full evening culling and stacking 200 photos of the moon with my 8 inch dob, and the result barely looked sharper than a 20 frame stack. Given how much my mount drifts on concrete in Phoenix, would more exposure luck or a better planetary camera have been the real fix?

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robert_craig•17d ago

Stacked 200 frames of Saturn and finally saw the Cassini gap

A guy on the imaging forum said my single-shot photos were leaving detail on the table, so I tried stacking last week with free software and now I'm embarrassed I didn't listen sooner.

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miawalker•18d ago

Was sure stacking was overkill, one nebula photo flipped me

Last month I posted a single 30 second Orion shot and thought it looked fine. Then someone in the comments shared their stacked version of the same target, same night, same sky. The difference in the dust lanes was ridiculous, mine looked like a smudge next to theirs. So I spent last Tuesday learning DeepSkyStacker and now I can't go back. Anyone else get stubborn about processing until a side by side made them cave?

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the_sandra•18d ago

Stacking 200 photos was wrong, here's what a comment fixed

I shot the Orion Nebula last month and stacked around 200 frames in DeepSkyStacker. Someone on the sub pointed out my stars were bloated because I wasn't using the right drizzle setting for my camera's sensor. I reran it with 2x drizzle and dropped the exposure time on my next session. The detail in the nebula core came out way sharper, but my background got noisier. Anyone else hit this tradeoff and picked a simpler 1x drizzle instead?

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reese_patel•21d ago

Was told to stop lens stacking but my single 130mm shot looks worse

Last month at the Table Mountain star party my neighbor said stacking 15 frames ruins detail and I should shoot single exposures, but my one 2 minute shot of the Orion Nebula came out with more noise than my triple stack from 2022, anyone else find stacking works better for nebula photography?

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oscarmurphy•21d ago

That guy at the star party who swore by his $200 eyepiece ruined my night

Met a dude in Flagstaff last week who wouldn't shut up about his Televue, claimed my cheap 25mm was why my Saturn shots looked soft. I swapped it out of spite and yeah, the difference was night and day, now I'm eyeing a used one but worried it's just gear envy. Anyone else had a random stranger's setup make you question your whole kit?

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piper_thompson31•22d ago

PSA: Check your RAW file dates before stacking, I lost 6 hours to a clock issue

My camera timestamp was off by 4 hours from a battery swap and my stacked image had star trails I couldn't explain, took me way too long to notice the EXIF data was lying. Anyone else get burned by a timezone or clock mismatch when aligning frames?

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emmajackson•22d ago

Machu Picchu star shots: real sky or cleaned up too much?

I was in Peru last month and shot the Milky Way over the ruins. The raw frames had crazy light pollution from Aguas Calientes below, so I did gradient removal and stacked 14 exposures. Now some people are saying my final image is too processed, that it doesn't look like what your eye saw. But no single exposure captured the detail either, so where's the line between bringing out data and faking the scene? Have any of you run into this on famous landmarks, and do you disclose how much you edit before posting?

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logan648•22d ago

Stacking vs single exposure, I finally switched

I used to just take one long exposure of the Orion Nebula and call it done. After seeing a friend's stacked image from his backyard in Phoenix, the detail was so much better that I spent a weekend learning DeepSkyStacker with 40 frames. The difference is night and day, has anyone else made the jump and gone back?

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faithf77•23d ago

My neighbor's telescope comment about Jupiter ruined my whole photo night

Last Tuesday I spent 3 hours stacking 400 frames of Jupiter with my 8-inch dob, and my neighbor walks over and goes "is that just a bright star?" I nearly choked on my coffee because I had the Great Red Spot visible and she thought it was a pixel. Anyone else have non-astro people casually dismiss a photo you worked forever on, or is it just my street?

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violafox•24d ago

Stacked vs single exposure for nebula shots, I'm team stacked now

I spent last month photographing the Orion Nebula with my old DSLR, first trying a single 30 second exposure at ISO 3200. The core blew out and the outer dust was just noise, looked like a fuzzy orange blob. Then I took 40 frames at 15 seconds each and stacked them in DeepSkyStacker, same camera and lens setup. The difference was ridiculous, you could actually see the dark lanes and the color gradient. I know some folks argue single long exposures are more honest to what's up there, but for detail it's no contest. Am I missing something, or is stacking just the obvious way to go for anyone without a fancy equatorial mount?

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gray_patel•26d ago

Swapped my phone camera for an actual DSLR on Orion last month and the difference is insane

I used to just prop my phone up on a tripod and crank the ISO for nebula shots, but everything came out grainy and flat. Picked up a used Nikon D5300 off Craigslist for $200 and paired it with a cheap intervalometer. Now I'm stacking 20 second exposures from my backyard in Tucson and actually pulling out the dust lanes in Barnard's Loop. Anyone else hit a wall with smartphone astro and finally make the switch?

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the_jesse•27d ago

That redditor told me to stop stacking filters on my telescope, and he was totally right.

I wasted three clear nights in February trying to shoot Orion through a light pollution filter AND a moon filter stacked together, and when I finally took the moon filter off, the details in the nebula popped like I never saw before anyone else here ever double-stacked filters and ruined their own shots?

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davis.diana•27d ago

Changed my filters after a buddy's moon shot blew mine away

A guy from my local club told me to try a UHC filter for nebula photos, and I always thought those were just gimmicks for beginners. He let me borrow his for an hour at a dark site in Sedona and the detail in the Orion Nebula was honestly shocking compared to my unfiltered shot. Has anyone else had a specific filter totally change how you approach a target?

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emma_mitchell•28d ago

Hit 500 photos of the Orion Nebula last night, was not expecting that number

I was just stacking my last session from the backyard in Tucson and noticed my file count for M42 hit exactly 500 frames. Didn't plan it, just kept shooting over a few weeks with my old Canon T3i and a 200mm lens. Used DeepSkyStacker to combine them and the detail in the dust lanes was way better than I thought it would be. Has anyone else hit a milestone like that where the results surprised you?

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xenan64•29d ago

Stumbled on a 10-year-old photo of the Milky Way I took from my backyard

I was cleaning out an old hard drive last night and found a shot I took back in 2014 from my folks' place outside of Flagstaff. Back then I was using a beat-up DSLR on a tripod that cost me $80, no tracking mount or anything. The image is grainy and has some light pollution, but it still makes me smile thinking about how excited I got just to catch a glimpse of the core. Does anyone else hold onto their old astro photos even though they're not technically great?

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fox.skyler•1mo ago

Finally got a clear shot of Andromeda after 4 failed attempts

I spent about 3 hours over two nights trying to stack my shots but kept getting blurry results because my tripod was on a uneven patch of grass... turns out I needed to move it to the concrete patio instead. Has anyone else wasted a whole night on a simple setup problem like that?

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betty_park62•1mo ago

I finally stopped pretending my phone camera could capture the Milky Way

After 3 years of grainy night shots from my backyard in Tucson, I finally rented a proper DSLR for $60 and saw what a real astronomy photo looks like, has anyone else dealt with the disappointment of realizing your gear was the problem?

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kelly61•1mo ago

Am I the only one who thinks stacking planetary photos gives way better results than single shots?

I spent like 2 hours last night comparing a single Jupiter shot I took with my 8-inch Dob to one I stacked from 500 frames in Registax. The single frame was all fuzzy with barely any bands visible, but the stacked one popped with detail like I never expected. My buddy swears stacking is too much work and just uses a phone mount for quick snaps, and honestly his photos look flat compared to mine. Do you guys prefer stacking for planets or think single shots are fine if you get good conditions? I'm curious what everyone else's experience has been.

2 comments