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Orion Nebula (Beginner)
Astronomy

Orion Nebula (Beginner)


Captured with:

Celestron Explorer Refractor Telescope.

100 AP

660 Focal Length

25mm eyepiece

Photo taken with:

Samsung S20 basic camera.

Edited with:

Built in Samsung S20 photo editor.

First time ever capturing nebulae, complete beginner had my scope just over a week! I didn't use any mounts just simply held my phone up to the eye piece lol, I think It turned out OK. I show the pic edited, to show the gas cloud a bit more prominently. I'll defo invest in a phone mount, alongside some better editing software, and perhaps some lense filters! Happy with any feedback.

by DylanEE11

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1 Comment

  1. traffic_sign on

    Great image op! This is nearly exactly how I got into astrophotography so I can offer some tips to help you improve. This going to sound like ALOT, but with great editing+stacking+technique you can get some pretty damn good images with just your setup+a phone (nothing like what you normally see on this sub but still).

    (before I write this I’d also like to add that you WILL NOT nail it on the first try, and getting good images with this method take a TON of practice)
    -First step is to put your phone in the adapter and align it nearly perfectly.
    -Then aim your telescope at the target, swap to the pro camera and set your settings to 3200ISO+1s exposure (MAKE SURE TO SHOOT IN RAW).
    -take as many photos of the target as you can (back when I did this, I aimed for 3k+ photos, but you can get away with just 200+ photos).
    -download deepskystacker on a pc/laptop
    -transfer all of your photos to said computer and look up a tutorial on how to stack them with deep sky stacker. (this can take a while when you’re getting into the 1000+ photos range so you might want to have your computer stacking overnight)
    -then look up a tutorial on how to use Siril, and process your stacked image with it
    -then you can take the image you get with Siril and take it to some photo editing software for final touch ups (I used GIMP, but nearly any photo editing software works. So just use what you’re most comfortable with)
    -then boom you’ve got a final image!

    I’m not saying that this is the best way to get into AP (getting a Seestar/other smart scope or a refractor with tracking is CERTAINLY easier). I’m just saying this is a valid way to do it. And that it’s probably the cheapest option right now for OP since all he’d have to buy is a smartphone adapter.