Show us your worst astro images.

[RB]

Well with all the great images posted lately here on IIS, I thought a thread showing us your worst images would be fun and helpful.
Newbies to astro imaging can find it daunting and disappointing when confronted with fantastic images by others then looking at their own first attemps, I know I did.

So show us your worst, in the spirit of encouraging others to keep trying and not give up.

Here's three of mine:

1st - is Saturn.
2nd - is The Orion Nebula
3rd - No it's not the Ring Nebula, it's my first attempt at Mars in 2003.

[iceman]

Here's one of my first webcam images of Saturn!

I used an old Intel create&share webcam I had lying around, and the drivers didn't allow any exposure adjustments. After this fantastic attempt, I found that I could use my hartman mask and cover a few holes to reduce the exposure enough to get an image :)

[davidpretorius]

i have deleted most to make room on my harddrive

[Itchy]

OK I'm game

Great idea Andrew,

It shows that we all start somewhere and gives us a laugh!!(love your Mars shot :lol: )

I've tossed out my real duds but here are some of my early shots that I was quite proud of at the time (well maybe not the mars shot). Taken with a Canon G2 and my SN10. Unfortunatlely they need a description. The first one is M20, mars in the middle and then my first tarantula.

[ving]

lol, well i have some DSOs... the thing is that i havent really progressed :P

this one makes me giggle... ghost of jupiter neb
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v46/ving68/8inch_dob/th_ghostofjupiter.jpg (http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v46/ving68/8inch_dob/ghostofjupiter.jpg)

how bout some m42?
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v46/ving68/8inch_dob/th_Dsc04143.jpg (http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v46/ving68/8inch_dob/Dsc04143.jpg)

no? tuc47?
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v46/ving68/8inch_dob/th_Dsc03950.jpg (http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v46/ving68/8inch_dob/Dsc03950.jpg)

and the jewel box ;)
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v46/ving68/8inch_dob/th_Dsc03627.jpg (http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v46/ving68/8inch_dob/Dsc03627.jpg)

[avandonk]

Good idea. It did not take me long to find some, as I have plenty. A random set from when I had a lot to learn or relearn, These are from very early 2005.

Bert

[ving]

hey bert, what causes the half moon stars inthe second one?

[avandonk]

A slight tracking error. Ok bad polar alignment and overcorrecting tracking I think.
Bert

[h0ughy]

a recent one, I tripped over the timer cable:doh:

[asimov]

Gee guys! There ALL absolutely terrible! well done!!:P :rofl:

I'll drop some of mine in here when I get home tonight.....hang on!? I've already got a thread going called 'Asimovs worst pics ever!!' :D

[avandonk]

The really great thing about digital cameras is you get to see the result straight away and then you can work out where you went wrong. In the old days of film by the time it was developed you had no idea what you did let alone where you went wrong. The real fun is getting better at it, not competing with the Hubble. OK not yet anyway.

Bert

[RB]

I agree Bert.
The ones I posted here are all film shots.
So I gave up trying by the late 90's.
These days digital is so much easier to see where you've gone wrong.
Once I got my Canon DSLR I got back into it and havn't looked back since.
It was around the same time I joined IIS, August 2005

[cometcatcher]

Stand back everyone, let the master of failure through. These are actually the best of the worst, not the worst of the worst. They never got printed. :P

I'm gunna need two pages for these. :P

I was never any good with planets.

[Jonathan]

My first attempt at Saturn last weekend with the toucam. I certainly hope it's the worst I can do. :lol:

[cometcatcher]

Deep sky next.

Halley's comet (no really it is) on ASA 10,000,000 film. Or in this case Ilford HP5 pushed a 'bit'.

There's a Helix nebula in there somewhere.

M104 is trailed as long as the galaxy.

M8 enlarged a million times with a 200mm lens.

M8 not so enlarged but with nice trails.

I think this is Omega Cent..

Orion neb with everything wrong with it.

[ving]

what did you use for those planets kevin? :)

[cometcatcher]

All planets would have been taken through an 8 inch f7.5 Newtonian. Jupiter and Saturn with Ilford HP5 and Mars was with Kodak TP-2415.

The thumbs don't actually look that bad. Wait until you click on em. :)

[avandonk]

Cometcatcher thats not fair your bad shots are better than mine! Or at least far more ambitious!

Bert

[ving]

hahaha! kevin,
your helix looks like my ghost of jupiter!!!! :P

[cometcatcher]

I may have thrown out my very worst but they were the most frustrating yet teasing of all.

I remember taking a 90 minute manually guided pic through my 80mm f15 refractor on slide film of the Orion nebula back in about 1981. I got an unrecognisable trailed mess for my effort with sore back thrown in for good measure. But there was nebula there! From then on I stepped down to piggy back tele lenses that didn't trail so much and were faster. From there I gradually increased the focal length of the scopes I used until I eventually was shooting through the main scope.

That only took about 10 years. The learning curve with film is extremely slow!

[cometcatcher]

I think I shall call it "Ghost of Helix" Ving. :D

[ving]

the ghost of helix past?