Spent a whole night trying to get a shot of the Orion Nebula from my backyard in Phoenix

My problem was a tiny piece of dust on my camera sensor that I kept thinking was a new star. I spent like 4 hours re-focusing and checking my telescope before I finally saw it on a test shot. Has anyone else had a speck of dust totally ruin a night of imaging?

3 comments

3 Comments

corap219h ago

Honestly that sounds like a skill issue lol. A real astro person would spot sensor dust right away and just clean it.

dixon.james6h ago

Feel your pain so much. I once spent a whole session chasing a "weird galaxy" that was just a smudge on my lens cap. It's the worst when your brain just locks onto it as a real target. That four hour hunt sounds brutal, but at least you found it.

jamie_adams9h ago

Wait, you spent four hours on that? I would have lost my mind after the first hour of checking everything else. That speck must have been perfectly placed to look like a faint star.