My first decent shot of the Milky Way core took 47 attempts

Linda Webb · 2026-03-15T06:50:11.063959+00:00

I was stacking exposures for a deep sky target and the software said I'd hit 47 frames. That's the exact number of times I'd tried to get a clear shot of the Milky Way core from my backyard over two summers. It finally clicked when I started tracking the moon phase and drove an hour out of the city to a dark sky site near Flagstaff. The difference in star count was insane. Anyone else have a specific number of tries that finally made it work for them?

sarah2686mo ago

My first decent shot took like 300 attempts, I'm a slow learner.

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ben136mo ago

What kind of gear were you using for those 300 tries? I bet a lot of them were just fighting the camera settings... figuring out the right ISO and shutter speed without getting star trails is its own battle before you even find a dark spot.

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lucas_jenkins4mo ago

300 attempts makes me feel better about my own learning curve. At least you didn't give up after 299. I guess the 300th try is when you finally remember to take the lens cap off.

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