Finally caught Andromeda after 7 cloudy nights this winter

I've been trying to get a good photo of M31 for weeks now and the weather in Seattle has been brutal. Every single night it was either raining or completely overcast. Finally last Tuesday around 2 AM the sky cleared up out of nowhere. I ran outside with my Canon and tripod still set up from the night before and managed to grab 40 decent frames before the clouds rolled back in. The stacked image actually showed the dust lanes and everything. I didn't think it was possible from my backyard with all the light pollution. Has anyone else had a run of bad weather that just suddenly broke? What did you shoot?

3 comments

3 Comments

kellyjones22d ago

Honestly, that part about "perfect conditions or no point trying" is exactly what I used to think too. But like @hugo_robinson25 said, you just take whatever the sky gives you, which is why your 40 frames worked out. Tbh, even a dozen decent frames from a backyard can beat waiting for that perfect night that never comes.

jake98622d ago

...and that's exactly what happened to me last month with the Orion Nebula. I had given up after two weeks of solid clouds here in the Pacific Northwest, woke up at 3 AM to check on something, and saw the stars were out. I just grabbed my mount and started shooting blind in the driveway, got maybe 30 frames before the fog rolled in from the bay. The stacked result wasn't perfect but it showed way more detail than I expected given the conditions.

hugo_robinson2522d ago

Used to be one of those guys who thought you needed perfect conditions or no point even trying. Jake's story (and a few others I've seen) really flipped that for me, now I just get what I can when the sky lets me.