Astrophotography
Welcome to !astrophotography!
We are Lemmy's dedicated astrophotography community!
If you want to see or post pictures of space taken by amateurs using amateur level equipment, this is the place for you!
If you want to learn more about taking astro photos, check out our wiki or our discord!
Please read the rules before you post! It is your responsibility to be aware of current rules. Failure to be aware of current rules may result in your post being removed without warning at moderator discretion.
Rules
- I | Real space images only.
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Astrophotography refers to images of astronomical objects or phenomena exclusively.
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~~Images that show objects or people below the Kármán Line (100km) will be removed.~~ We won't be enforcing this rule for now, but as the community grows eventually we will split and have a separate space for just landscape astro.
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Images must be an accurate representation of a real astronomical object.
- II | Original and Amateur Content Only
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Image posts can only be images that you have captured and processed yourself, or discussion about capturing and/or processing your own images.
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Images acquired from public sources, professional observatories, or other professional services are not allowed.
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If you have done a drastic alteration or reprocessing of a prior submission, you may repost your edit - but only after a minimum of one week has passed.
- III | Post Types
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Image posts are to link directly to the image, not to landing pages, personal galleries, blogs, or professional sites. Link to these in the comments. (AstroBin and Imgur, are allowed)
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Questions are welcome here for the time being.
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Links to blogs, articles or external websites should be interesting and promote discussion about amateur astrophotography.
- IV | Titles
- All image posts should just include include the name of the object being photographed. Extra info such as equipment, it being your first image, or other information should go in a comment along with your acquisition info. Please see this page for more details.
If your post is removed, try reposting with a different title. Don't hesitate to message the mods if you still have questions!
- V | Acquisition and Processing Information
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All submitted images must include acquisition and processing details as a top-level comment. All posts without this information may be given a warning, and if not updated will be removed.
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This includes the telescope, mount, camera, accessories, and any other pieces of equipment you used to capture the image.
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You must also include processing details, i.e. the programs you used and a general rundown of the workflow/processes you used within those programs. “Processed in Photoshop” is not enough.
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Here's what single Ha, Oiii, and Sii frames look like.
I've never actually used Siril, but for the longest time Pixinsight has been considered the be all and end all for deep sky processing, and I decided to dive completely into it once I moved on from photoshop. There's also a number of processes and scripts made by the community just for pix which have become essential for some of my workflows, like BlurXterminator (paid), and a bunch of pixelmath expressions from the guys in the discord.
Awesome, thanks! For a newcomer like myself I always find it super fascinating to see how "uninteresting" the single take looks like, and then how blastingly colorful, detailled and amazing the final result is compared to that.
I just shared my own story a few hours ago here on this community, where you can see my progress over the last few months.
How long did it take for you to get to this stage of awesomeness? How much does the equipment cost, and at what spots do you shoot them? Do you travel explicitly to very remote areas (e.g. the desert or forest), or do you shoot them in your frontyard? :D
Are you interested in being my "guide", in terms of telling me what maximum quality and detail I can achieve with my current, shitty and absolutely-not-comparable-to-yours, equipment? I mean, you had to start somewhere too, right? What were your last results of the stage when you decided to upgrade from your first camera to a better one? Would you mind sharing a similar story?
I think, I will just make a post regarding that question, so it reaches a wider audience :D
It's taken me several years to get to this point, and honestly I'm still continuing to learn new techniques and improve my processing to this day. I've never actually added up how much all my equipment costs, because then I'd have to give an honest answer when my family asks. I did buy a lot of it on the used market, and I haven't really upgraded anything since covid and astronomy gear prices shot up. Most of my images I take from my apartment balcony, which has horrific light pollution. A couple times a year I'll head out to a dark site like the Deerlick Astronomy Village for a weekend. If there are any astonomy clubs in your town they'll tell you what dark sites are best near you.
I'm not sure how much of a 'guide' I could be, but I can help give advice and constructive criticism if you need it! If you use discord there's also a ton of beginner info and people able to help out in ours (link in the sidebar).
I sadly don't, but you can check out this. Gladly, I'm at the edge of a dark-yellow zone, next to a green one, meaning it's pretty good. The difference, just 500 or 1000 meters away compared to the mid city, is actually super noticeable even with the naked eye. Maybe consider checking out the map and look for less polluted areas, e.g. a forest or big field :)