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I finally got a sharp photo of Andromeda after 3 months of trying
Last Thursday night I set up my telescope in the backyard around 10pm. The moon was barely up and the air felt still for once. I have been trying to photograph the Andromeda Galaxy since June and every shot came out blurry or noisy. This time I used a Bahtinov mask to focus and took 45 individual 2 minute exposures. Stacked them in DeepSkyStacker and when the final image came out I could actually see the dust lanes clearly. It is not Hubble quality but it is the best shot I have ever taken of a galaxy. My wife came out to look and said oh that looks like a real galaxy now. Has anyone else had that moment where something finally clicks after failing for weeks?
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reese12414d ago
Man, that feeling when it all comes together is something else. I remember when I spent like two months trying to get a clear shot of the moon's terminator through my old 8 inch dob. Every time I thought I had focus dialed in, the wind would kick up or the seeing would go to crap. Then one night I just sat there for an hour waiting for the air to settle and caught a split second of crystal clear detail. It made all those failed nights feel worth it in that one moment.
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hayes.joel14d ago
How long did you let the Bahtinov mask sit in the cold before using it to get accurate focus?
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