Hot take: I think overprocessed astrophotography ruins the real beauty of deep sky objects

I was out at Cherry Springs State Park in Pennsylvania about 2 months ago with my Celestron 8SE. Set up to grab some shots of the Orion Nebula. But about 20 minutes in, a deer ran right into my tripod leg. Knocked the whole thing over, mount twisted, camera hit the gravel. I mean, total disaster right? Bent the dovetail plate, scratched my Canon T7 sensor cover. I just sat there for a minute staring at the stars. Then I decided screw it, I'll just look through the eyepiece the rest of the night without camera gear. And honestly? That raw unfiltered view of M42 was way more satisfying than any 4 hour stacked exposure I've ever edited. Has anyone else had gear fail but ended up liking the night more without it?

2 comments

2 Comments

ben_shah936d ago

My buddy's mount died in the desert and he said the naked eye views were way better.

lilyt906d ago

Ha! Oh man, that deer story is both hilarious and painful. I feel like that's the universe's way of saying "put the camera down, dummy." My gear didn't fail but my brain did once - I spent an hour trying to polar align my mount only to realize I had the tripod set up facing west instead of north. Classic me. Ended up just lying on a blanket staring up and saw like three shooting stars, way better than any tracking session I've ever had. Sometimes I think we get so caught up in capturing the perfect image that we forget to actually look at the sky. Your point about raw unfiltered views hits home because my best nights have been when everything went wrong and I just gave up on photography entirely.

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