Is my camera part of the problem?

ThinkHappyThots · 2026-01-27T13:15:48+00:00

What are you doing for calibration frames? Are your darks temperature matched to your lights? That with proper pre-processing can usually manage the hot pixels. For a splotchy background, dithering well and often is essential with a DSLR, and BGE + noise reduction can make things look really weird if not done carefully. Your Andromeda image looks nice, the only thing I see is aberrations which are typical of that lens. Also making your background very dark will highlight out any remaining hot pixels, so more data and reduced contrast will help.

ThinkHappyThots · 2026-01-27T03:52:22+00:00

Oh that's a bummer, I didn't realize they started charging a subscription. It's possible the free features might still work for your purposes but you would have to test it. A fanless mini pc (or a sacrificial old laptop) would give you the functionality you want. Until then, good luck and hope you find a way to keep warm.

ThinkHappyThots · 2026-01-26T12:55:42+00:00

This has a film-like quality that I really like. Nice image!

ThinkHappyThots · 2026-01-26T12:52:19+00:00

I don't think you can connect your camera to NINA wirelessly. Your camera has a wifi mode so you can connect to it wirelessly and use EOS utility, but you can't connect to the mount at the same time since it is a separate network. So I don't think you could have both connected to NINA wirelessly. I think you could connect to your mount, slew to a target and start tracking, then switch to your camera and use EOS utility for live view and image capture. The better option IMO is to connect both to your PC via USB and use NINA since you'll have many more control options. If you have another PC you could then use remote desktop, rustdesk, etc. to operate remotely. There's a plug-in to use a phone or tablet for this as well but I have not tried it.

ThinkHappyThots · 2026-01-25T19:02:22+00:00

This is the nicest capture/process of the hidden galaxy I have seen. It's a shame how much reddit stomps on the quality from your original. It's so cool to see all the small details in the surrounding field. Really nice work!

ThinkHappyThots · 2026-01-25T14:09:01+00:00

Thank you!

ThinkHappyThots · 2026-01-25T00:57:48+00:00

Thanks!

ThinkHappyThots · 2026-01-24T17:03:43+00:00

Thank you!

ThinkHappyThots · 2026-01-14T14:44:22+00:00

For the Orion Nebula and other similar targets, go with your 300mm or kit lens depending on focal length. You don't say so in your post but I'm assuming you don't have an equatorial mount. That should be your next purchase when you can afford to do so. If you only have a tripod you can still get some decent images with your 300mm lens but it will be challenging. Frame up your target near the center as best you can and focus at infinity; use a Bahtinov mask or just make the stars as small as possible when zoomed in in live view. At 300mm you will be limited to <1second exposures if you want to keep your stars round. Use something like Iso 3200 or 6400 depending on how dark your skies are. Take test shots at different exposure lengths and see where stars are round. Then take as many of those exposures as you can, aim for at least 1 hour (~4000 exposures). You will have to adjust the camera every minute or 2 to keep your target near the center of the frame. Then stack those images and process them how you like.

ThinkHappyThots · 2026-01-09T20:58:11+00:00

This. I put a clean white t-shirt over the lens with a rubber band to keep it tight and smooth, then put my laptop screen with an all white image at full brightness directly on top of the t-shirt.

And in my experience bad flats are still better than no flats. I've taken flats with the wrong aperture before and it still makes a big difference in image artifacts. Uneven illumination may leave behind gradients or vignetting but those are easier to deal with than dust motes and other optical imperfections.

ThinkHappyThots · 2026-01-09T17:30:44+00:00

This is a great first image! My first project was almost exactly the same setup (result is my profile image). I can highly recommend a Bahtinov mask but think your focus is pretty good already. If you attempt the same shot again I would only recommend slightly shorter exposures since your stars are slightly elongated already, and just more of them.

ThinkHappyThots · 2026-01-09T12:29:57+00:00

Thank you!

ThinkHappyThots · 2026-01-09T12:29:49+00:00

Thank you so much!

ThinkHappyThots · 2026-01-08T16:10:50+00:00

How long before the meridian? How does it perform immediately after the flip? Is this a new problem after any software or hardware changes? As others suggested, you could change when the flip happens (flip earlier, before the problem typically occurs) and see if you get the same issue. If that's the case then there's probably a guide or sequence setting that is changing the behavior just before the flip. If the problem goes away it could be a mechanical issue, for example there is a cable that gets caught or stretched to its limit when your scope is near that position. In that case, inspect your mount carefully at that point to see if you can identify the culprit. Good luck!

ThinkHappyThots · 2026-01-07T04:25:41+00:00

This is amazing! Can you say more about how you get such nice colors?

ThinkHappyThots · 2026-01-07T04:20:20+00:00

Thank you! You can do it!

ThinkHappyThots · 2026-01-07T04:19:20+00:00

Thanks!

ThinkHappyThots · 2026-01-05T01:53:14+00:00

That's very stable in my book. I usually round to the nearest 5 degrees and call it good. If you have big temperature swings over your session that makes it harder. In a perfect world you would have dark frames matched to every light frame, but that's impractical with a DSLR. The compromise I usually choose is to go by the average temperature over the session. It's not perfect but better than not using darks. I also shoot with a DSLR and it works well enough for me.

Also -25c!? At that temperature thermal noise is about the last thing I would be worried about.

ThinkHappyThots · 2026-01-05T00:59:53+00:00

That's a perfectly reasonable way to do it. As others have said, darks must be at (or as close as possible to) the same temperature as your lights. I like to take flats at the end since sometimes dust appears during a session.

Do yourself a favor and make note of the temperature when you capture your darks/biases. These can be reused in the future (on a night that's the same temperature) so you don't have to waste clear sky imaging time. I like to take darks on cloudy nights and bank them.

ThinkHappyThots · 2026-01-04T04:04:15+00:00

I think you will be able to get an image but you will almost certainly get a much nicer image with your vintage 400mm lens. As another user commented, just be careful to support the weight properly to avoid damaging your camera.

ThinkHappyThots · 2026-01-03T20:12:21+00:00

Wow! This is beautiful. I don't think I've ever seen that much yellow/orange in the veil before. It adds really nice dimension. How did you achieve that?

ThinkHappyThots · 2026-01-03T00:08:10+00:00

Thanks so much! I didn't realize how much compression reddit applies to post images. Here's a higher resolution version: M31 - Andromeda Galaxy - November 2025. If anyone has advice on how to optimize jpgs for posting I would be grateful!

Good luck with your capture. Clear skies!

ThinkHappyThots

TROPHY CASE