Remember when astrophotography was film only?

Got into astrophotography back in the 90s with a manual film camera and my dad's old telescope. Just found my old darkroom prints and realized how much easier digital stacking makes everything now. Anyone else miss the patience it took back then?

2 comments

2 Comments

wade_perez21d ago

Yeah, I remember spending three hours in a freezing backyard just to screw up the guiding and get a single blurry shot of Saturn that looked like a smeared thumbprint. Then you'd go inside and spend another hour in the darkroom breathing in those toxic chemicals, hoping the developer didn't turn your hard work into a black blob. Now you can take 500 frames in ten minutes, stack them with software, and get a crisp image while sitting on your couch drinking coffee. Digital stacking is basically cheating compared to the old days, but I'm not complaining about having less hassle. Makes you wonder if the struggle actually meant anything or if we were just stubborn idiots who liked suffering for our hobbies.

rosek4420d ago

@wade_perez you're not wrong but I actually kind of miss the forced patience sometimes. My best shot from back then was a single 20 minute exposure of the Orion Nebula where everything actually lined up and I remember literally holding my breath when I pulled the print out of the developer. That feeling doesn't hit the same when you can just reprocess a stack in thirty seconds if you mess up.

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