14
Warning: Spent 6 months framing astro shots wrong before a park ranger set me straight
I was over at Cherry Springs State Park in Pennsylvania last month and this ranger walked by while I was stacking frames on my laptop. He just casually pointed out I had my tracking speed set to solar rate instead of sidereal for deep sky objects. I'd been doing that since I bought my mount in March and wondered why my stars always had tiny trails after 60 seconds. Has anyone else had a dumb setting mess up months of data without realizing it?
4 comments
Log in to join the discussion
Log In4 Comments
matthew3712d ago
That bit about the ranger casually pointing out your mistake is such a classic example of how we all get stuck in our ways (especially with tech stuff). It makes me think about how often I miss the obvious in everyday things, like assuming the fast lane is always the best choice even when traffic's all messed up.
4
erickelly1d ago
You mentioned assuming the fast lane is always best even with messed up traffic but that's actually not quite the same thing - with astrophotography the tracking speed is a hard technical setting, not a subjective choice like picking a lane. Idk, it's more like driving in second gear on the highway thinking you're in fifth without checking the tach.
4
paige1661d ago
Oh wow yeah @erickelly that driving analogy actually makes more sense the more I think about it lol. My buddy Tom spent like three nights trying to figure out why his subs were all blurred and he kept messing with the exposure time thinking it was his mount. Turns out he had accidentally set the tracking speed to lunar instead of sidereal and just never checked. He was so pissed when he realized because his polar alignment was actually decent but the whole time his mount was moving at the wrong speed. Its like being in second gear at 60 mph wondering why your engine is screaming at you. Took a guy at our local astro club like ten seconds to spot the problem when Tom finally asked for help.
2