c/astronomy-photos

My new camera mount fought me for a whole night under the stars

I got this fancy equatorial mount last month to try for some deep sky shots. Last night I set it up in my backyard, spent 45 minutes just trying to get the polar alignment right because the little finder scope was fogging up. Then I realized I had the counterweight bar in backwards the whole time, which threw off the whole balance. What should have taken 20 minutes turned into a 3 hour battle before I even took one picture. Anyone have a simpler way to do polar alignment without losing your mind?

My neighbor said my deep space photos were just 'pretty dots' and it got me thinking...

I was showing him a shot of the Orion Nebula I took from my backyard in Denver last month, and he shrugged and said, 'It's just a bunch of pretty dots, isn't it?' I tried explaining the scale and the gas clouds, but he didn't get it. Do you ever run into people who just don't see the point in what we're looking at?

My whole week of astro shots got ruined by a single streetlight

I drove all the way out to Joshua Tree last week, set up my gear for a 5-night run to catch the Milky Way core, and on night three the park installed a new, super bright sodium vapor light in the parking lot. It washed out every single 3-minute exposure I tried after that, turning what should have been deep space into an orange haze. Has anyone else had a prime dark sky spot suddenly ruined like this, and did you find a new place?

I hit 500 tracked objects in my backyard imaging log and it changed my whole view

For years I just shot whatever looked cool, mostly the big stuff like Orion or Andromeda. My log was a mess of random notes. Then I got a new mount and decided to be more serious about it. I made a simple spreadsheet to log every single target, the date, my exposure time, and the gear used. I just filled in line 500 last night, and it was a faint galaxy group I'd never even heard of before. Seeing that number made it click. This isn't just a hobby of pretty pictures anymore. It's a real record of what I've seen and learned. I can look back and see how my skills grew with each entry. It turned my hobby into a project I'm really proud of. Has anyone else hit a number in their astro work that made them see things differently?

I keep seeing people post Jupiter shots with the moons in a straight line, but they're almost never actually aligned like that from our view.

After stacking about 50 images from my backyard in Austin over the past year, I realized the Galilean moons usually form more of a curved or scattered pattern, so are those perfect line shots mostly composites or just lucky timing?

My neighbor saw my Jupiter photo and asked if I could zoom in on the 'little green guys'

This was in my driveway in Phoenix after I'd spent four hours on a single shot. I had to explain that even the James Webb can't find aliens in my backyard shots.

Showerthought: I was wrong about needing a super expensive camera for deep sky stuff

My buddy Jake, who runs the local astronomy club, kept telling me for MONTHS that my old DSLR and a tracker could get great shots if I just stacked enough frames. I thought he was nuts because all the forums talk about cooled astro cameras. Last month, I finally listened and spent a whole night on the Orion Nebula with my basic setup. I took over 200 two-minute exposures, stacked them in free software, and the result was honestly mind blowing. The detail was way better than I ever got trying to use a fancy telescope alone. Has anyone else had a big upgrade just from changing their process, not their gear?

Just realized I've been stacking my deep sky photos wrong this whole time

I was trying to get a good shot of the Orion Nebula from my backyard in Austin last week, and the stars kept looking like little lines instead of points. I'd been taking 30 second shots and stacking about 50 of them, thinking more was better. Then I saw a forum comment where someone said if your stars trail, your single exposure is too long, no matter how many you stack. I felt so dumb. I dropped down to 15 second shots and stacked 120 of them, and the difference was night and day. Has anyone else had a basic rule click for them way later than it should have?

My first try at shooting the Milky Way from Joshua Tree was a total disaster

I drove out there last Friday with my new camera and a star tracker I got for my birthday. Set up everything right as it got dark, but I forgot to check the moon phase. A nearly full moon washed out the whole sky for like four hours. I got maybe two decent shots out of 50 attempts before the battery died. Has anyone else had a plan completely ruined by something simple they overlooked? What do you do to double-check conditions?

I used to think those super sharp moon photos were all fake editing

For years, I figured any picture showing crazy crater detail was just someone pushing sliders too far. Then, about three months ago, I tried stacking 200 frames from my own video of the moon. The free software combined them and the result was a photo with texture I could never get from a single shot. It wasn't magic, just math averaging out the blur from our atmosphere. Seeing my own gear produce that level of detail completely changed my mind. Has anyone else had a moment where a processing technique you doubted turned out to be the real deal?

Serious question, is a $500 star tracker worth it for a beginner?

I bought a Sky-Watcher Star Adventurer last year thinking it would let me take amazing deep space shots. After a month of trying, I realized my light pollution is so bad I can barely see the Milky Way. I spent hours setting it up only to get fuzzy, gray photos. On one hand, the gear is solid and works as advertised. On the other, I could have put that money toward a trip to a dark sky park and used a basic tripod. Has anyone else bought fancy gear before their location could support it?

My cousin told me to just use my phone for moon shots and I'm glad I listened

I mean, I was about to drop like $300 on a cheap telescope adapter for my old camera. He said, 'Just prop your phone against the eyepiece, it works fine.' I tried it last month during the full moon and got a shot that's honestly clearer than some of my old gear pics. Now I feel silly for almost spending all that cash. Anyone have other simple tricks for taking decent space pics without a ton of gear?

TIL I've been stacking my astro photos wrong for months, wasting half my clear nights.

I finally watched a tutorial from a guy in Tucson and realized my stacking software was set to 'average' instead of 'sigma clip', which was why my star clusters always looked so soft and washed out.

Bought a 'light pollution filter' for my phone camera. Total joke.

Saw an ad for a cheap filter that promised to cut city glow and show the Milky Way. Cost me $25. Tried it last night from my backyard in Phoenix. The photos looked exactly the same, just a weird purple tint. Anyone know a real way to get decent shots without driving hours away?

Bought a cheap telescope mount for astro photos and it cost me a whole night of shooting

I got a no-name equatorial mount online for like $200 last month, thinking I could save cash for a better camera. Big mistake. Took it out to a dark spot near Red Rock, spent an hour getting polar alignment just right. The second I started a 3-minute exposure on the Orion Nebula, the whole thing started shaking. The gears were so bad it made star trails look like spaghetti. I lost that entire imaging session, about 4 hours of work, because the mount couldn't hold still. Now I have to save up for a real one anyway. Anyone have a solid mount they use for under $500 that actually works?

Finally got my polar alignment dialed in after three freezing nights

My new mount kept drifting, and I realized my tripod leg wasn't perfectly level on my uneven patio. I spent about 8 hours total over three nights just tweaking it with the polar scope app. Anyone have a better method for a really uneven surface?

I always thought my old phone camera was good enough for the moon until I borrowed my friend's DSLR

For months, I'd just hold my phone up to my little backyard telescope and snap away. The pictures looked okay on the screen, a white blob with some gray smudges. Then my buddy let me use his Canon T7 with a proper adapter for a night. The difference was NOT subtle. With the phone, I got a bright, fuzzy circle. With the DSLR, I could actually see craters, like Tycho and Copernicus, with sharp edges and shadows inside them. I could even make out some of the rays from the big impacts. It was like looking at a map instead of a painting of a map. The camera just pulled in so much more detail and handled the bright light way better. Has anyone else made a jump like that and been totally blown away by what you were missing?

I used to think my phone was fine for star photos until I tried a cheap telescope

For a long time, I just pointed my phone at the sky, held it still, and hoped for the best. The pictures were always just fuzzy dots. Then my buddy lent me his old $80 refractor telescope, the kind you can find used anywhere, and I hooked my phone to it with a basic adapter. The difference wasn't just big, it was like seeing a whole new sky. Suddenly I could make out the rings of Saturn as actual rings, not a blurry oval. I could see the red spot on Jupiter. The phone alone was just collecting light, but the telescope actually gathered and focused it. It's the difference between hearing music from another room and sitting right in front of the speakers. Has anyone else made a jump like that with basic gear? What was the first thing you saw clearly that blew your mind?

I finally got a clear night to shoot the Milky Way and my neighbor's security light ruined everything

Last Thursday was supposed to be perfect, no moon and a forecast of clear skies, so I drove an hour out to Joshua Tree to set up. I spent 45 minutes framing my shot and getting the focus just right on my star tracker. Right as I started a 3-minute exposure, a bright motion sensor light from a nearby cabin flashed on and stayed on, washing out the whole frame. The owner came out and said, 'Oh, that thing's been broken for weeks, comes on whenever a rabbit runs by.' Has anyone else had a perfect astro night wrecked by something totally stupid like that?

Heads up about stacking software for deep sky images

I processed the same Andromeda shot with two different free programs, and the one using a weighted average method kept way more faint detail than the simple median stack. What's your go-to stacking tool for keeping those faint galaxies clear?

PSA: That new 'light pollution filter' I bought for my camera gave me a weird green tint on everything

I got a specific filter, the Hoya Red Intensifier, because the online reviews said it was great for cutting through the skyglow from my town. I was trying to get a cleaner shot of the Orion Nebula from my backyard last week. The first test shot looked okay, but after stacking about 30 images, the whole frame had this strange, sickly green cast that I couldn't fully edit out. It wasn't the usual color noise, it was like a uniform tint over the stars and the nebula itself. I spent hours trying to fix it in software before I gave up. I learned that some of these filters can really mess with your camera's sensor in unexpected ways, especially with newer models. Has anyone else run into color balance issues with specific light pollution filters?

Just found out how much data the Hubble archive holds

I was reading an article about the Hubble Space Telescope and saw it's sent back over 170 terabytes of images since 1990. That's a crazy amount of raw space pics just sitting there for anyone to look at. Has anyone here ever downloaded and processed raw Hubble data themselves?

My dew heater battery died at 2 AM on a mountain in Flagstaff

I was stacking my galaxy shots for a year before a guy at the star party pointed out my flats were wrong.

He asked if I was shooting them at the same focus as my lights, and I realized I'd been refocusing the scope first. Do you always match focus exactly, or is a close enough flat still okay?

I just hit 500 hours of total exposure on my Andromeda galaxy project

It started as a simple shot from my backyard in Boise, but I kept adding data over two years. Seeing that number made me realize I've been staring at the same patch of sky longer than some TV shows run. Has anyone else had a target they just couldn't stop collecting time on?