My Second Astrophotography Attempt: Capturing the Veil Nebula!
Wow! I'm still a bit stunned by how well this turned out. This is only the second astrophotography image I've ever taken, and I'm incredibly proud of it, even with the few flaws I'm still learning to tame in post-processing.
When I started processing, I was amazed by the amount of visible dust and gas in the region. For a while, I was genuinely worried it was just light pollution or vignetting creeping in, and I was losing my mind trying to figure it out!
One interesting quirk I encountered was a weird black spot right in the middle of the two veils. I'm not entirely sure what caused it, so if anyone has any tips or ideas on where that might have come from, I'd be hugely grateful to hear them!
The Gear and The Grind
Here's a breakdown of the equipment and process I used for this shot:
- Camera: Canon Rebel T7
- Lens: Canon 70-300mm f/4-f/5.6
- Mount: Sky Watcher Star Adventure 2i
Acquisition Details:
- Total Exposure: 8340 seconds
- Individual Exposures: 30 seconds each
- ISO: 1600
- Calibration Frames: 30 darks, 50 flats, 100 biases
Processing:
Edited and stacked using Sirlil, Graxpert, Starnet, and GNU.
The Result
It's not perfect, but for my second attempt at capturing the wonders of the night sky, I think this is a pretty fantastic start! The detail in the Veil Nebula is just breathtaking, and I'm excited to keep learning and improving.
