c/astronomy-photos

Hated my old stacking method for astrophotos until I tried something simple

I used to just stack my moon shots in Registax and call it done, but I always got this weird blurry edge. Then about 3 months ago I watched a tutorial that said to manually align each frame in Photoshop instead of letting software auto-stack. On my last full moon capture I did 40 frames by hand and the difference in sharpness was night and day. Anybody else had better luck with manual alignment over stacking programs?

Had to pick between a 6-inch Orion dob and a tabletop Celestron yesterday

I went with the Orion because I figured bigger aperture means more detail, but now I'm stuck wrestling it out to my car every clear night. The tabletop would have been way easier to grab and go for last minute trips out of town. Anyone else regret going big over portable?

Showerthought: that one perfect week of astrophotography I'll never top

Back in October 2021, I had five clear nights in a row at my spot outside Flagstaff. No moon, no clouds, no wind - just steady skies from 8pm to 4am each night. I managed to get 12 hours total on the Orion Nebula and another 8 on Andromeda. The stacked images came out so clean I barely had to touch the noise reduction. Has anyone else hit a lucky streak like that where everything just worked?

That cheap planetary camera trick actually worked for Jupiter shots

I swapped my pricier color cam for a used monochrome one under $100 and stacked RGB filters, and the detail on Jupiter was way better than anything I got before - has anyone else tried this over just sticking with a single camera?

Saturn photo trend that drives me crazy - rings always oversaturated

I've been looking at astronomy photos for about 20 years now, and I keep seeing people pump the colors on Saturn way too much. The rings come out looking like neon yellow and bright orange. Real Saturn has subtle gold and tan tones. I know because I compared my own telescope shots from my backyard in Phoenix with the raw data from Cassini. Has anyone else noticed this in the submissions here, or am I being too picky?

Overheard a park ranger say my astro photo looked like 'a smudge' and it stung worse than I expected

I was at a star party at Cherry Springs State Park last weekend and this ranger walked by my setup, glanced at my 30-second Orion nebula shot, and muttered that to another guy. Has anyone else gotten a brutally honest critique of their photos out in the wild like that?

Pro tip: I spent 2 years stacking my telescope shots wrong before a random forum comment mentioned dark frames.

Turns out I was just layering raw images on top of each other like a stack of pancakes, and that one tip about subtracting the sensor noise literally doubled the detail in my Orion Nebula photo from last March, has anyone else missed something this obvious for way too long?

Tried to photograph the Milky Way from my backyard - got 47 pictures of my neighbor's floodlight instead

I spent $30 on a used star tracker and set everything up at 2am, only to realize his motion sensor light was pointing right at my lens every 5 minutes. Learn from me - check your local light pollution before you buy equipment. Anyone else have a neighbor sabotage their astrophotography?

Finally got a decent shot of the Horsehead Nebula after 3 clear nights in a row of my mount drifting like crazy

Turns out I forgot to tighten the declination clutch on my HEQ5 after a polar alignment check, so my 5-minute subs were all stretched into little star trails before I realized what was happening around 2 AM.

Hit 1000 stack frames last night on my deep sky image of Orion

I've been processing this one M42 shot for like 4 weeks now, adding more frames whenever I get clear skies. Finally got it to 1000 sub exposures after last night's session. That's about 8 hours of total integration time which is way more than I ever thought I'd bother with. The noise reduction is honestly insane compared to my usual 200 frame shots. How many frames do you guys normally stack before you feel like the returns stop being worth it?

Stacking astro photos vs single long exposures - which actually gives better results?

I used to think stacking 50+ images was just overkill processing nonsense, but after trying it on a shot of the Orion Nebula last winter I have to admit the detail difference was massive. Still though, single exposures capture more spontaneous moments and don't require hours of software work - what's your experience been with either method?

Spent 3 hours trying to stack an Orion nebula photo before realizing my tripod was loose

Talking to my dad about the Hubble deep field photo changed how I see night sky photos now

He said the whole image covers a patch of sky the size of a grain of sand held at arm's length and I just stood there quiet for a minute, so when you zoom into any of those fuzzy dots, that's an entire galaxy with billions of stars, has anyone else had that moment where a simple number or size comparison just hits different?

Paid $300 for a star tracker mount that wobbled on every single shot

Vent: The guy who told me to skip a star tracker for my astro photos

Back in 2021, a guy on a forum told me I didn't need a star tracker for deep sky stuff, just a tripod and a fast lens. I listened to him and spent 6 months getting blurry, trailed shots of the Orion Nebula. Finally borrowed a friend's Sky-Watcher Star Adventurer and got a clear shot my first try. Anyone else get burned by bad advice from someone who sounded confident?

My $60 planetary camera turned out to be a webcam in a fancy case

I bought this budget SVBONY planetary camera off Amazon thinking I'd get crisp shots of Jupiter, but when I checked the specs it's literally just a repackaged 720p webcam sensor. It worked okay for the moon but any planet detail was just blurry mush even after stacking 2000 frames. Has anyone found a decent planetary camera under $150 that actually works for Saturn's rings?

Why does nobody talk about overprocessed astro photos being a turnoff

I used to pile on the saturation and sharpness on every nebula shot I took, thought it looked amazing. Then someone in my local club in Austin told me my M31 looked like a cartoon and they couldn't even see the dust lanes properly anymore. It stung at first, but I dialed everything back by 60% and now my Andromeda shots actually look natural and people comment on the detail instead of the glow. Has anyone else had an ego hit like that and actually changed their editing style for the better?

Had to pick between a $300 Celestron and a $600 Meade for my first real scope in 15 years

I went with the Celestron because the guy at the shop said it held collimation better and I'm glad I did since the first night out in my backyard I caught Saturn's rings through a gap in the clouds but I still wonder if that Meade would have given me deeper views of Orion.

Stacked vs single exposure M42 shots and the difference is night and day

I spent last week comparing my old single 30-second shot of the Orion Nebula to a new stacked image from 80 frames at 3 seconds each. The stacked version actually showed the dust lanes and the Trapezium cluster, while the single one was just a blurry white blob. Processing in DeepSkyStacker was a pain at first but totally worth it. Has anyone else had better luck with shorter exposures on bright targets like this?

Hit 500 hours of exposure on one deep sky object. Worth it or waste?

I just crossed 500 hours of total exposure time on a single galaxy from my backyard in Ohio. That's like six months of clear nights stacked together. Some folks say you hit diminishing returns after 100 hours and should move on. Others argue the extra data pulls out details you just can't get otherwise. Has anyone else pushed past 300 hours on one target and actually saw something new?

Vent: That astrophotography guy on YouTube said I didn't need a star tracker, now I have 200 blurry photos of Orion

Last week I finally captured Jupiter's bands with just my phone and a tripod

Honestly, I've been trying for months to get a decent shot of Jupiter through my 8 inch dob. I messed around with different phone adapters and apps, but last Thursday the sky was dead clear around 11pm. I propped my Galaxy up against the eyepiece with a cheap ring I got off Amazon for 12 bucks. The photo came out way sharper than I expected, you could actually see two cloud bands and three moons. I know it's not Hubble quality, but it felt like a real win for a beginner. Has anyone else had a random night where everything just lined up for a photo?

That one comment about my Orion Nebula photo that made me ditch the tripod forever

Serious question, did anyone else stop zooming into planets with a phone camera after getting a real telescope?

I used to just snap blurry shots of the moon through my binoculars for years until I borrowed a 6 inch Dobsonian from a neighbor last October and saw Jupiter's bands for the first time, so is it normal to feel like phone pics are completely pointless now or am I just being dramatic?

Appreciation post: the Hubble Deep Field photo that changed how I see space

I know everyone loves the new James Webb pictures and I get why, but I went back and looked at the original Hubble Deep Field from 1995 last night. It covers an area of sky about the size of a grain of sand held at arm's length and still managed to capture over 3,000 galaxies. That fact alone made me realize how much we take those earlier photos for granted now. Anyone else revisit old Hubble shots and find something new in them?