Finally, Some Results
After a few weeks and some new equipment, I finally achieved something that made it all worthwhile. By this point, I had spent close to 30 hours watching YouTube tutorials, learning different techniques from the astrophotography community. I decided it was time to take the plunge and invest in a proper telescope, a star-tracking mount, and some of the best free software available. While I’ll likely write about equipment in future posts, for now, I want to focus on the software that transformed my nights.
The primary software I use is called NINA (Nighttime Imaging ‘N’ Astronomy). It’s an astrophotography imaging suite with dozens of features—many of which I’m still learning to use. Even with my limited knowledge, NINA turned things around for me the first night I tried it. Here are three features that made the biggest difference:
- Framing Window
- Imaging Window
- Plate Solving (the most important one!)
Plate solving was a game-changer. It allowed me to take a quick photo of the night sky, and then the software analyzed the star positions to tell me exactly where I was pointing. From there, with small adjustments in Right Ascension (RA) and Declination (Dec), I could find my target. Using a popular planetarium app on my phone, I identified something I thought might peek through the trees around our house.
I did it! I captured not one but two distant galaxies, finally getting some real results. Of course, just my luck, the trees got in the way, and I had to find another target. I decided on M51, the Whirlpool Galaxy. I managed to frame it perfectly and began collecting as much data as I could, knowing I’d later bring the image into processing software to reveal its details.
Challenges and Lessons Learned
A big challenge I face is working around the trees on our property. Living in the woods means being surrounded by them, so I must carefully choose targets that are high enough to clear the tree line. How long they stay above the trees varies depending on the target and time of year. This makes planning key.
After capturing M51, I brought the data into a free software called GIMP. As a complete beginner to image processing, I followed one or two tutorials I found online. It was a great starting point, but I quickly realized that processing images has a steep learning curve. Fortunately, I’ve since learned that there are practice image files available online—but I prefer to work exclusively with my own data.
Looking at that first processed image of M51 today brings a bittersweet feeling. On one hand, I can see how rough it looks. But on the other hand, I absolutely love it. It was my first image of something in deep space, and it gave me the confidence to keep looking up and moving forward. Now, my biggest challenge is fine-tuning my processing skills to bring out the beauty of the cosmos in every shot.
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