c/astronomy-photos

Tried to get a shot of the Milky Way from my backyard in Tucson. Forgot about the neighbor's new motion light. Got a picture of a raccoon instead.

I tried a cheap filter for the moon and ended up with a purple ring around it

Bought a $30 neutral density filter online to try and get more detail in my lunar shots from my apartment balcony. Stacked about 20 frames, and the final image had this weird purple halo around the whole moon. Turns out the filter was causing some bad chromatic aberration that my stacking software couldn't fix. Has anyone else had a budget filter ruin a whole imaging session?

I tried stacking 50 photos of the Orion Nebula from my backyard and got a weird green tint I can't explain

Vent: The obsession with the Orion Nebula shots is getting old

Three years ago at the star party in Joshua Tree, every other scope was pointed at M42, and it's still the same now. I think we're missing so many other cool things, like the Veil Nebula in Cygnus, just because it's not as bright. Anyone else feel like we should push for more variety in these photo threads?

Warning: I was stacking my astro photos wrong for months

I was trying to get a clear shot of the Orion Nebula from my backyard in Phoenix, stacking about 30 frames. The result was always a soft, noisy mess. Last week, a guy in a different forum asked to see my single raw frames. He pointed out my focus was drifting slightly between shots because my tripod leg wasn't fully tight. I fixed that one loose knob and the next stack was razor sharp. How do you guys check your gear stability before a long imaging run?

My new camera mount decided to take a nap right under the Orion Nebula

I was all set up in my backyard last Friday night, the sky was crystal clear for once. I had just bought a fancy new geared head for my tripod, the kind with the little silver knobs you turn. I got M42 framed up perfectly, took a test shot, and went inside to grab a coffee. I came back out maybe ten minutes later to find my whole camera setup pointing straight down at the grass. The main locking knob on the brand new mount had slowly, silently, given up. The whole thing just sagged. My heart sank. I spent the next half hour trying to re-tighten everything with a wrench from my garage, but the threads felt stripped. I ended up having to just hold the camera tube by hand for a few 30-second shots, which was as steady as you'd guess. Has anyone else had a piece of gear fail in such a quiet, disappointing way right at the worst moment? What did you do to fix it, or did you just have to replace the whole thing?

Tried to take a picture of the Orion Nebula with my phone taped to my telescope

I used a roll of duct tape and a lot of hope, but the final image looked like a blurry gray smudge with a piece of lint in the middle. My neighbor saw it and asked if I'd taken a picture of a dirty lens cap. Has anyone actually gotten a decent phone shot of a DSO, or is that just a myth?

Rant: I drove 2 hours to the Joshua Tree dark sky zone and my phone ruined my first real astro shot.

I had my camera on a tripod for a 30 second exposure of the Milky Way, but the screen glare from checking a text completely washed out the shot, so now I only shoot with my phone in airplane mode and a red flashlight. What's your go-to method for keeping light pollution out of your shots at a dark site?

Appreciation post: I finally tried a dedicated astro camera instead of my DSLR

I was stuck between the ZWO ASI533 and just using my old Canon, but the camera's lower noise in a 2 minute test shot was a total game changer. Anyone have tips for cooling settings on a warm summer night?

I always stacked my astro shots, but a single 5 minute exposure last night proved me wrong

For years, I stacked 30 second shots to avoid star trails, thinking more frames meant a cleaner image. Last night with my new tracker, I tried a single 5 minute exposure of the Orion Nebula. The detail and color depth were way better than my usual 50 frame stack. The core wasn't blown out, and the faint outer gas was actually visible. I guess the extra total light gathering from one long shot beat my old method. Has anyone else found a sweet spot with longer single exposures over stacking?

My cat walked on the keyboard and somehow fixed my star trailing issue

After three nights of blurry shots from my backyard in Phoenix, I accidentally left the laptop open and my cat, Mochi, stepped on the 'bracket' key, which turned out to be a shortcut for exposure bracketing in my software that I never knew about, and it actually worked to fix the problem. Has anyone else had a pet 'help' with their astro setup in a weirdly effective way?

My brother told me my star trails looked like a toddler scribbled on the sky...

I was super proud of a 30-minute exposure I took from my backyard in Boise, but he pointed out the trails were wobbly because my tripod leg was on a loose patio stone. Now I put a brick under each foot before I start shooting. Anyone have other weird fixes for shaky setups?

I think the obsession with perfect gear for astro photos is overblown

Last month at a dark sky site in Joshua Tree, my main camera battery died right as the Milky Way core rose. All I had was my old phone and a cheap tripod. I took a 30 second exposure anyway, and the result had more character than my usual super clean shots. It made me wonder if chasing perfect gear makes us miss the point. Has anyone else gotten a good shot with less than ideal stuff?

My first attempt at the Orion Nebula from my backyard in Tucson was a total blur.

I forgot to refocus after swapping lenses, so my whole first hour of shots was useless. Has anyone else made a simple mistake that cost you a whole imaging session?

My brother said I needed a star tracker for deep sky shots and I thought he was just showing off

For the longest time, I was convinced I could get good shots of galaxies and nebulae just by stacking a bunch of short exposures from my basic tripod. My brother, who's been into this for a decade, kept telling me, 'Noah, you're wasting your time. You need a tracker to follow the stars, even a cheap one.' I finally borrowed his Sky-Watcher Star Adventurer for a weekend at a dark site near Flagstaff. The difference was insane. My old method gave me fuzzy, streaky blobs after 200 shots. With the tracker doing a 3-minute guided exposure, the Orion Nebula just popped with detail I'd never seen in my own photos. He was totally right. It's not about having fancy gear, it's about letting the camera actually collect the light. Anyone have tips for polar alignment without a clear view of Polaris?

My entire imaging run got wrecked by a neighbor's new security light

Spent three clear nights in a row trying to get a good capture of the Andromeda Galaxy from my backyard in Tempe. On the final night, my neighbor across the street installed this super bright LED floodlight that just blasted my setup. The subs from that session are completely washed out with orange glare. Has anyone else had to deal with sudden light pollution like this and found a way to talk to neighbors about it?

Finally got a decent shot of the Orion Nebula after months of blurry mess

For the first six months, I'd just point my basic telescope and my phone at the sky from my backyard in Tacoma, getting nothing but fuzzy gray smudges. I finally saved up and got a proper motorized mount and a cheap guide camera about three weeks ago. Last night, after stacking fifty 30-second exposures, the colors and detail just popped out at me. Anyone have tips for bringing out more of the faint outer gas clouds?

Spent $800 on a new star tracker and it was a total game changer

I was getting blurry shots with my old tripod, so I bought a Sky-Watcher Star Adventurer Pro last month. The first clear night I used it, my 3-minute exposures of the Andromeda Galaxy were pin sharp. Has anyone else found a piece of gear that finally made their deep sky photos click?

Finally got a decent shot of the Orion Nebula after doubting my gear

I was sure my basic DSLR and old lens couldn't handle it, but stacking 45 two-second exposures from my backyard proved me wrong. The core detail is way clearer than I expected. What's a target you thought was out of reach that actually worked?

My old tripod leg snapped right as the Milky Way was rising

It happened last Saturday at Joshua Tree, and I had to MacGyver it with gaffer tape and a rock. Anyone have a solid tripod recommendation under $200 that can handle some desert wind?

I was looking at a photo of the Horsehead Nebula and the scale just blew my mind

I was reading an article on the NASA website about the James Webb Space Telescope's new images. It said the dark part of the Horsehead Nebula, that iconic horse head shape, is about three light-years tall. I had to stop and think about that. A light-year is the distance light travels in a whole year, which is almost six trillion miles. So that dark cloud is roughly eighteen trillion miles from top to bottom. It's just a speck in a photo on my phone screen, but the real thing is an almost unthinkable amount of empty space and dust. It really hit me how these amazing pictures are showing us things so big and so far away that our brains can't really get it. Has anyone else had a moment like that with a space photo, where the numbers just didn't seem real?

A friend said my star photos looked like 'white dots on black paper'

He told me to try stacking 50 shots instead of just one to bring out more detail. I used DeepSkyStacker for the first time last night on some shots of the Orion Nebula. The difference was huge, way more color and structure came out. Has anyone else had a simple tip that made a big change to their photos?

PSA: The parking lot at the Joshua Tree observatory has a perfect view of the Milky Way

I drove out there last night around 11 PM and the sky was so clear you could see the galactic core with your naked eye. I got way better shots just by setting my tripod on the asphalt instead of hiking into the sand. What's the darkest sky spot you've found that's easy to get to?

My first real photo of the Orion Nebula looked like a gray blob, now I can see the dust lanes

A year back, my shots of M42 were just fuzzy gray smudges with my old DSLR and kit lens. I saved up and got a used star tracker last fall, and the difference is crazy. Now I stack 90 second exposures and the reds and blues actually show up, plus those dark dust clouds in the wings. The big change was learning to take calibration frames, dark and flat frames, which I never did before. It took a whole clear night in my backyard to get enough data, but it was worth it. Anyone else have a target that went from a blob to a real picture after a gear or process change?

My kid asked why the stars in my photos don't look like the ones in her book

I was showing my 8 year old a picture I took of Orion's Belt from our backyard in Denver, and she pointed to a drawing in her science book saying 'Dad, your stars are just white dots, but the book shows all the colors.' I had to explain that our eyes can't see the colors well at night, but my camera sensor can pick them up if I take a long enough exposure. Has anyone else had a simple question make you think more about how you process your astrophotos?