My first decent shot of the Andromeda Galaxy, 3 months apart

I finally got a photo of Andromeda that I don't hate. My first try back in August was just a blurry smudge with my DSLR and kit lens, barely any detail. Then I got a star tracker and watched a few YouTube tutorials on stacking. The difference from August to now is night and day. I can actually see the dust lanes and the core is sharp. It took about 50 stacked 30-second exposures to get there. Has anyone else had that moment where one piece of gear or technique just clicks?

2 comments

2 Comments

harperschmidt25d ago

Oh man, I'm gonna be the contrarian here. Honestly, I think people put way too much stock in gear like star trackers and stacking. You spent three months and probably a few hundred bucks to get a slightly less blurry version of what every other astrophotographer already has. The real skill is working with what you've got and making a single, unstacked shot that actually has some soul or composition to it. Your August smudge probably had more character than this technically perfect but kinda boring rectangle.

zara44725d ago

Used to be in the same camp as harperschmidt actually, thought stacking was just cheating. But then I tried it on some old data and saw detail I didn't even know I captured, totally changed my mind on the whole thing.