My first decent shot of the Orion Nebula after six months of trying

I finally got a clear enough night to stack 45 minutes of exposures on my basic DSLR and a cheap tracker. The core detail came out way better than I ever thought it would, showing some of the gas clouds. It felt good to see all that time in the cold pay off. What's a good next target for someone with similar gear?

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3 Comments

hollydixon6mo ago

Basic DSLR and a cheap tracker" is actually a huge limitation, not a starting point. You'll just get more fuzzy blobs on other targets and waste more cold nights. That feeling of payoff is a trap that leads to buying more gear you can't afford.

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jake_dixon6mo ago

That "feeling of payoff" line is spot on. I chased that for a year with my old T3i and a wonky tripod, ended up with a hard drive full of noisy shots that just made me want to quit.

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palmer.val5mo ago

What if the fuzzy blobs are the whole point? My first real shot of Andromeda was a noisy mess, but it was mine. Learning to pull any detail out of that taught me more than a perfect tracked shot ever could. That struggle makes the later wins mean something.

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