c/astronomy-photos

Found a simple trick for better moon photos without a telescope

I kept getting blurry moon shots with my phone camera, just a white blob every time. Tried tapping to focus and lowering exposure, still looked bad. Then I read somewhere to use a tripod and set a timer so my hands don't shake it. First try on Tuesday night came out sharp enough to see craters. Anyone else got any cheap hacks for phone astrophotography?

My 8 year old nephew asked me 'why do stars have circles around them in photos?' and now I can't stop seeing diffraction spikes everywhere

Just saw a timelapse of Orion Nebula from 3 years ago vs now

The cloud structure completely shifted and the colors went from muddy red to crisp blue-violet. Anyone else notice how fast these nebulas actually change when you stack images across different seasons?

That week every photo I took looked like dirty glass, then I finally cleaned my sensor properly.

I spent last Thursday through Sunday blaming my lens for weird fuzzy spots on every shot of the Orion Nebula, then a guy on a forum said $8 sensor swabs and 5 minutes of work turned my $800 camera body back into a $800 camera body, anyone else put off cleaning their sensor for way too long?

Pro tip: Always check your tripod legs before a shoot

I was out at a dark sky spot near Lake Wenatchee last August, trying to get a clean shot of the Milky Way. Set everything up, got my focus dialed in, and then the whole rig tipped over when a leg suddenly collapsed. Turns out I hadn't tightened the locks after carrying it through some brush. Spent the next 15 minutes shaking sand out of my camera bag and hoping the lens wasn't scratched. Has anyone else had a catastrophic setup fail like that at the worst possible time?

Had a freak clear night last Tuesday that gave me 47 minutes of perfect Andromeda shots

I was out in my backyard near Boise at 2am with my Celestron and the sky was so still I actually got a photo sharp enough to see the dust lanes, has anyone else ever had one of those random perfect windows?

Hit 10,000 megapixels of deep sky data last night and it caught me off guard

I was just stacking frames for the Orion Nebula and realized I've crossed 10,000 megapixels of captured data across my last 3 projects - that's like 250 full moon shots combined into one image. Has anyone else hit a storage or exposure milestone that made you stop and actually think about what you're collecting?

Tried to stack photos of the Milky Way and ruined an hour of data with a bad calibration frame

I was out at Cherry Springs last month shooting 75 light frames of the core but forgot to take flats in the field and spent the whole drive home kicking myself because no amount of post processing could fix that dust donut right over the center of the galaxy, has anyone else had a whole session trashed by something stupid like forgetting darks?

Am I the only one who wasted $50 on a star tracker that barely worked?

I bought that popular entry level star tracker off Amazon six months ago thinking it would help me get sharp Milky Way shots. Set it up in my backyard in Tucson on a clear night and spent three hours fighting with the alignment. The thing kept drifting off target after just five minutes even though I followed every tutorial I could find. I tried balancing it different ways and tightening everything but it just wouldn't hold a steady lock. Finally gave up and returned it but had to pay return shipping so I still lost about $15 total. Has anyone else had bad luck with those cheap trackers or did I just get a lemon?

Switching from smartphone to a real camera for astrophotography was night and day

I was always taking moon shots with my phone, trying to get detail but they came out blurry and washed out. Last week I borrowed my friend's old DSLR with a cheap telephoto lens and pointed it at the Orion Nebula. The difference was insane, I could actually see the gas clouds and dust lanes instead of a white blob. Has anyone else made the jump from phone to camera and felt like they were seeing the sky for the first time?

I used to think stacking frames was a waste of time

After trying to pull detail out of a single 30-second shot of the Orion Nebula and getting nothing but noise, I finally stacked 50 frames in DSS and the difference was so massive I honestly felt stupid for fighting it for two years.

That one comment about star stacking that made me ditch my single exposures

I was posting my Milky Way shots in here for months and someone finally pointed out that my stars looked like tiny blobs. They said I needed to stack at least 10 frames to get sharp pinpoint stars. I tried it with my next shoot in the Rockies and the difference was night and day. Do you guys usually go for 10 frames or do you push for more like 20 or 30?

Tried photographing the moon through a cheap telescope that I bought on Facebook Marketplace last month

The mount gave out after three minutes and the whole thing collapsed onto my patio, so now I'm saving for a Celestron instead, anyone else have a budget setup fail on them like this?

Finally caught the Orion Nebula after 3 tries at Great Basin

Last Thursday I drove out to Great Basin National Park in Nevada with my old Dobsonian scope and finally got a decent shot of M42. I've been trying for a month but kept getting clouded out or letting light pollution from my truck ruin the long exposures. The details in the dust lanes popped way more than I expected, even with just a smartphone adapter and manual tracking. Anyone else find that a dark sky location makes a bigger difference than gear upgrades?

Stacking vs single exposures for deep sky photos

Everyone goes on about stacking dozens of short exposures now but I still prefer one longer exposure when I can get it. Last August I took a single 20 minute shot of the Andromeda Galaxy from my backyard in Ohio and it came out cleaner than any stack I've managed. Has anyone else found certain targets just look better single frame?

Spent 6 hours stacking Orion Nebula shots because I skipped flat frames

Pro tip: The view from Badwater Basin at 3 AM is way better than daytime...

I drove out to Death Valley last month thinking I'd get some classic sunrise shots of the salt flats. But I got there way too early, like 2 in the morning, and just sat there. At 3 AM the Milky Way was so bright it lit up the whole valley floor. No tourists, no noise, just the stars reflecting off the salt. I've been telling everyone to go at night instead of fighting the crowds now. Anyone else have a spot that works better after dark?

That star party where a guy's mount literally tipped over in the wind

I was out near Marfa last month at a dark sky site, and this guy set up his expensive CGE Pro mount on uneven ground without leveling it... the whole rig went down sideways when a gust hit, $15k worth of gear scratching across the caliche dirt. Did you have to eat the cost on something like that, or did insurance actually cover it?

Talked to a guy at a star party who made me rethink my whole rig

Was out near Joshua Tree last Saturday with my 8 inch Dob. This older guy rolls up with a beat up refractor from the 90s. He tells me aperture is overrated if your skies are trash. Pointed at his scope and said I've seen more with this in Bortle 3 than you will with that thing in Bortle 7. Hit me hard because I drive two hours to dark sites but still bring light pollution with me in my habits. Anyone else ever get schooled by some random dude with old gear?

Tried stacking 200 photos of Jupiter and got way more detail than I expected

I've been messing around with my old 8 inch Dobsonian and a cheap planetary camera I found on Craigslist for $60. Last Tuesday night the seeing was pretty good so I shot a video of Jupiter and ended up with about 200 usable frames after sorting through them. I stacked them in Autostakkert and ran it through Registax for sharpening, and honestly I was shocked at how much banding and even the Great Red Spot showed up. My single frame shots never looked anywhere close to that clear before. Has anyone else had a similar jump in quality when they finally tried stacking instead of just taking single shots?

Had to choose between a cheap 6 inch Dob or a used 4 inch refractor

Honestly, when I got my first real telescope about four years ago, I had to pick between a 6 inch Dobsonian for $250 or a beat up 4 inch refractor for $180. I went with the Dob because everyone online said aperture wins every time. It was huge and clunky and I had to store it in my hallway, but the views of the Andromeda galaxy were insane even from my backyard in Cleveland. The only problem was collimating it took forever and I dropped the secondary mirror twice. Now I wonder if the refractor would have been easier to set up and still good enough for the moon and planets. Has anyone else regretted going big over easy?

That $300 telescope my neighbor had made me feel like I am missing out

I saw my neighbor's Orion SkyQuest XT8 setup last Saturday and the moon shots he pulled were CRYSTAL clear compared to my little 60mm. He said he got it used for $300 and now I wonder if I should just save up for something bigger instead of upgrading my current one step at a time. Has anyone else made the jump from a small refractor to a dob and regretted the weight or storage hassle?

Spent 2 hours trying to stack my first deep sky image and it came out looking like a smudge

I finally got my act together to try astrophotography last month and set up my DSLR on a star tracker in my backyard. Got like 40 frames of the Andromeda Galaxy, felt pretty proud. Then I sat down to stack them in DeepSkyStacker and realized I had no clue what any of the settings meant. I must have clicked through 5 different tutorials and still ended up with a green blob that looked nothing like those photos you see online. Took me a full 2 hours just to get something that vaguely resembled a galaxy, and even then it was super noisy. I finally figured out I needed to take calibration frames (darks and flats) which I completely skipped. Has anyone else spent way too long on their first stack only to get a garbage result?

Spent $80 on a 'pro' star tracker that ruined my first Milky Way shoot

I bought a SkyWatcher Star Adventurer Mini off eBay for $80, thought I was getting a steal. Set it up at Cherry Springs State Park last Saturday, spent 3 hours trying to align it, and it just kept drifting. The cheap plastic clutch stripped out on me before I ever got a single usable 30-second exposure. Has anyone else had luck with the cheaper star trackers or should I just save up for a used iOptron SkyGuider Pro?

That stacked galaxy photo everyone is sharing is a complete crop job

I keep seeing this one deep field image going around on Instagram and Twitter, the one with all those overlapping spiral galaxies. People are acting like it's some new Hubble or Webb discovery. But I recognized the exact same field from a 2018 paper. Someone just cropped out the original labels and pumped up the saturation. Why does nobody fact check before hitting share anymore?