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?

2 comments

2 Comments

patricia421d ago

Got to agree with you there, those perfect nights are rare but man do they stick with you. It is almost spooky when everything goes right like the universe is giving you a little nod and saying here you go, take this one. I have had maybe two or three nights like that in five years of doing this and every time I end up staying out way past when I planned because I just cannot walk away from the viewfinder. The funniest part is when you go to process the data and you are half expecting to find some dumb mistake but nope, it is all there. You set a new bar for yourself with that Orion shot and now you are going to be chasing that feeling again for the next six months.

aaronf4018h ago

Wait, you mean I spent three hours freezing my fingers off for a shot that actually turned out perfect and there's NO catch? Because normally my luck means a cloud rolls in right when I'm getting the good stuff. Yeah, that's definitely the universe setting you up for a year of okay nights just so you can chase that one good one again.