My first time trying to image the Orion Nebula from my backyard in Tucson

I spent a whole night getting everything set up, only to realize at 3 AM that my camera battery was dead. I was using an old DSLR I hadn't charged in months. I had to run an extension cord from my garage and rig a power supply with a bunch of adapters. The final shots had a weird color cast from all the city lights, but I got something. Anyone have a good fix for light pollution on a tight budget?

3 comments

3 Comments

flores.emma27d ago

Try a cheap light pollution filter from Amazon, maybe a UHC type. Stacking a bunch of short exposures in free software like DeepSkyStacker can help too.

emma_garcia27d ago

Forget those cheap filters, they barely do anything in real city light. Stacking software is a huge time sink for very little gain if your raw data is bad to begin with. You're better off saving for a trip to darker skies or a much better camera mod. Those basic tools just give false hope and waste clear nights.

kimw5726d ago

You mention stacking is a huge time sink for little gain. What's your cutoff for when the raw data is too bad to even try?