r/Astronomy • u/VoijaRisa • Mar 27 '20
Hi all,
Friendly mod warning here. In r/Astronomy, somewhere around 70% of posts get removed. Yeah. That's a lot. All because people haven't bothered reading the rules or bothering to understand what words mean. So here, we're going to dive into them a bit further.
The most commonly violated rules are as follows:
Pictures
Our rule regarding pictures has three parts. If your post has been removed for violating our rules regarding pictures, we recommend considering the following, in the following order:
If you took the picture or did substantial processing of publicly available data, this counts. If not, it's going to be removed.
2) You must have the acquisition/processing information.
This needs to be somewhere easy for the mods to verify. This means it can either be in the post body or a top level comment. Responses to someone else's comment, in your link to your Instagram page, etc... do not count.
3) Images must be exceptional quality.
There are certain things that will immediately disqualify an image:
However, beyond that, we cannot give further clarification on what will or will not meet this criteria for several reasons:
So yes, this portion is inherently subjective and, at the end of the day, the mods are the ones that decide and the mods are under no obligation to explain this decision to you.
If you are informed that your post was removed because of image quality, arguing about the quality will not be successful. In particular, there are a few arguments that are false or otherwise trite which we simply won't tolerate. These include:
"You let that image that I think isn't as good stay up"
"Pictures have to be NASA quality"
"You have to have thousands of dollars of equipment"
"This is a really good photo given my equipment"
"This isn't being friendly to beginner astrophotographers"
"My post was getting a lot of upvotes"
Using the above arguments will not wow mods into suddenly approving your image. It will result in a ban.
Trying to argue with the mods using bad arguments isn't going to fly.
Lastly, it should be noted that we do allow astro-art in this sub. Obviously, it won't have acquisition information, but the content must still be original and mods get the final say on whether on the quality (although we're generally fairly generous on this).
Questions
This rule basically means you need to do your own research before posting.
To prevent your post from being removed, tell us specifically what you've tried. Just saying "I GoOgLeD iT" doesn't cut it.
Furthermore, when telling us what you've tried, we will be very unimpressed if you use sources that are prohibited under our source rule (social media memes, YouTube, AI, etc...).
As with the rules regarding pictures, the mods are the arbiters of how difficult questions are to answer. If you're not happy about that and want to complain that another question was allowed to stand, then we will invite you to post elsewhere with an immediate and permanent ban.
Object ID
We'd estimate that only 1-2% of all posts asking for help identifying an object actually follow our rules. Resources are available in the rule relating to this. If you haven't consulted the flow-chart and used the resources in the stickied comment, your post is getting removed. Seriously. Use Stellarium. It's free. It will very quickly tell you if that shiny thing is a planet which is probably the most common answer. The second most common answer is "Starlink". That's 95% of the ID posts right there that didn't need to be a post.
Do note that many of the phone apps in which you point your phone to the sky and it shows you what you are looing at are extremely poor at accurately determining where you're pointing. Furthermore, the scale is rarely correct. As such, this method is not considered a sufficient attempt at understanding on your part and you will need to apply some spatial reasoning to your attempt.
Pseudoscience
The mod team of r/astronomy has several mods with degrees in the field. We're very familiar with what is and is not pseudoscience in the field. And we take a hard line against pseudoscience. Promoting it is an immediate ban. Furthermore, we do not allow the entertaining of pseudoscience by trying to figure out how to "debate" it (even if you're trying to take the pro-science side). Trying to debate pseudoscience legitimizes it. As such, posts that entertain pseudoscience in any manner will be removed.
Outlandish Hypotheticals
This is a subset of the rule regarding pseudoscience and doesn't come up all that often, but when it does, it usually takes the form of "X does not work according to physics. How can I make it work?" or "If I ignore part of physics, how does physics work?"
Sometimes the first part of this isn't explicitly stated or even understood (in which case, see our rule regarding poorly researched posts) by the poster, but such questions are inherently nonsensical and will be removed.
Sources
ChatGPT and other LLMs are not reliable sources of information. Any use of them will be removed. This includes asking if they are correct or not.
Content
Due to the profusion of AI slop apps, we're no longer allowing apps at all. No, we don't care if you're wanting a "review". No we don't care if they're free. No we don't care if you put it in a website.
Bans
We almost never ban anyone for a first offense unless your post history makes it clear you're a spammer, troll, crackpot, etc... Rather, mods have tools in which to apply removal reasons which will send a message to the user letting them know which rule was violated. Because these rules, and in turn the messages, can cover a range of issues, you may need to actually consider which part of the rule your post violated. The mods are not here to read to you.
If you don't, and continue breaking the rules, we'll often respond with a temporary ban.
In many cases, we're happy to remove bans if you message the mods politely acknowledging the violation. But that almost never happens. Which brings us to the last thing we want to discuss.
Behavior
We've had a lot of people breaking rules and then getting rude when their posts are removed or they get bans (even temporary). That's a violation of our rules regarding behavior and is a quick way to get permabanned. To be clear: Breaking this rule anywhere on the sub will be a violation of the rules and dealt with accordingly, but breaking this rule when in full view of the mods by doing it in the mod-mail will 100% get you caught. So just don't do it.
Claiming the mods are "power tripping" or other insults when you violated the rules isn't going to help your case. It will get your muted for the maximum duration allowable and reported to the Reddit admins.
And no, your mis-interpretations of the rules, or saying it "was generating discussion" aren't going to help either.
While these are the most commonly violated rules, they are not the only rules. So make sure you read all of the rules.
r/Astronomy • u/Andromeda321 • 23h ago
But to be clear, this is probably the biggest award out there for science communications. Couldn’t have done it without this sub! :)
r/Astronomy • u/VoijaRisa • 16h ago
r/Astronomy • u/DubaiAstronomyGroup • 19m ago
A stunning capture of the Andromeda Galaxy (M31), our nearest major galactic neighbour, located about 2.5 million light-years away!
📸 Image by David Van Wieringen
🔭 Equipment: ZWO Seestar smart telescope
r/Astronomy • u/AstroNerd92 • 17h ago
Used a Seestar S50 and all edits made using Siril. After edits, this is 370x10sec stack (just over 1 hour). Very happy with this one since it was nearly a full moon.
r/Astronomy • u/Dull_Operation_2628 • 10h ago
The maximum separation of the 50 year orbital cycle. Sirius B is currently 11 arc seconds of separation from Sirius A. Separated by a distance of over 31 Astronomical Units. The closest White Dwarf Star to the Sun at 8.6 Light Years Away.
10” SCT Meade 2120
26mm eyepiece
Canon IXUS 185
100 ISO
13 seconds of exposure
2/23/22
r/Astronomy • u/DubaiAstronomyGroup • 11m ago
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A short clip of the Orionids Meteor Shower captured by Arif Alblooshi (@3roof.A) during our event in Al Qudra Desert in Dubai.
Always amazing to catch a meteor streaking across the night sky! ✨
Were you able to spot any meteors?
r/Astronomy • u/MechanicalTesla • 1d ago
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• iphone 16 pro max default app and controlling the gain on the PVS14 so that noise is minimized.
• The Orion Nebula M42
• The Pvs14 Gen 3 monocular night vision device with the following specifications:
• Photocathode Sensitivity: 2058 FOM: 2700
SNR: 37.5 EBI: .7 Halo: .7 Center resolution: 72
• Unfilmed/filmless Gated 18UM 11769 style is also mentioned.
• Sky-Watcher 300P Flextube
• @F/3.6 with nexus focal reducer .75x
• Sky-Watcher 150i
• Tele Vue 55 mm (67 mm conversion) eyepiece
• Sharpcap polar aligned and synscan pro one star alignment.
22lbs counterweights
• DaVinci Resolve Studio 21, noise reduction, histogram stretch, color modification.
• SVBONY SV220 Telescope Filter, 2" 7nm Dual-Band Nebula Filter, Reduce Stray Light, H-Alpha&o-III Narrowband Filter for One-Shot Color Camera
r/Astronomy • u/SteamPaz • 17h ago
✨ Target: Sh2-103 (Cygnus Loop)
🔭 Mount: Star Adventurer 2i
📷 Camera: ASI 294 MC Pro Color
🔎 Scope: Askar FMA180 Pro
🕶️ Filter: Dualband Svbony SV220
🎯 Guide Camera: ASI 120mm Mini Mono
🦮 Guide Scope: Svbony SV165
🔬 Sampling: 5.32"/px
❄️ Cooling: -10°C
🔴 Acquisition: Gain 120
⏰ Integration: 110x120s (3h 40min)
📊 Calibration: 40 dark, 40 flat, 40 dark-flat
💻 Processing: PixInsight, RawTherapee
📍 Location: Saint-Barthélemy (Italy)
📅 Date: Sept. 11, 2026
🌌 Sky: Bortle 3
r/Astronomy • u/jcat47 • 23h ago
🔭 EXPOSURE DETAILS:
🎯 Wolfs Cave, vDb152
📏 Distance: 1,4000 LY away
🔭 Telescope: Sharpstar 15028HNT CF
📷 Camera: ZWO ASI2600MM Pro
🏗️ Mount: ZWO AM5
🧭 Guide Scope and Camera: Askar FRA180 Pro + ASI174mm
🌈 Filters: Antlina 3nm Ha + Optolong LRGB
🌌 Bortle Scale: 4
⏱️ INTEGRATION TIME
⚪ L - 276 * 180s - 13h 48m
🔴 Ha - 58 * 180s - 2h 54m
🟥 R - 144 * 60s - 2h 24m
🟩 G - 148 * 60s - 2h 28m
🟦 B - 104 * 60s - 1h 44m
Total Integration: 23h 18m
💻 SOFTWARE
💻 Computer: ASIAIR
⚙️ Editing: PixInsight + Lightroom
🤳 Lowell Astrophotography on Instagram
r/Astronomy • u/SurpriseBorn4683 • 1d ago
I captured this image one autumn, a year or two ago, in Shanghai—a location with a Bortle 9 level of light pollution. To achieve this, I used a quad-band light pollution filter and stacked data collected over three nights, selecting only the frames taken after 11:00 PM.
At the time, I was still relatively new to deep-sky astrophotography and was very much in the process of exploring and learning the various technical parameters—my understanding was still quite limited. Furthermore, I hadn't yet had the chance to travel to areas with darker skies, so I had no choice but to contend with both heavy light pollution and atmospheric optical depth (AOD) right where I was.
I’m curious—how do the rest of you approach deep-sky astrophotography in areas with high levels of light pollution?
Equipment
Lens: APO 400mm f/5.6
Camera: ZWO ASI2600MC
Mount: HEQ5 Pro (Note: I hadn't yet purchased my harmonic drive mount—that came later, specifically for my first trip to a dark-sky site.)
Control & Guidance System: ZWO’s suite for autoguiding, autofocusing, and overall system control (ASIAIR).
r/Astronomy • u/buddha2490 • 1d ago
This is a work in progress, I don't think that any image at 11 hours of integration is even close to being done. But I do think it is pretty and thought I'd share.
M78 is a reflection nebula in Orion located 1,350 light years away from earth. I always like reflection nebula because you can really only enjoy them in the darkest skies. Unlike emission nebula, the various forms of light pollution and line filters don't help because they are reflecting broadband starlight from stars that are close by. They are blue due to the scattering of light, same reason why the sky is blue on earth.
Most images of M78 are simply the reflection nebula, but there is a strong Hydrogen-alpha background. After about 10 hours of LRGB, I could start to see some of the red background from the HA, so I decided to take a few hours of narrowband to bring it out and make a nice contrast.
I fully expect to add another 20 hours or so later in the month, but the next week is all clouds, so it'll be a while before I can get back to it.
Total integration: 11h 35m
Integration per filter:
Equipment:
r/Astronomy • u/Ill-Regret7743 • 12h ago
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Caught a video of this object seemingly stationary above moons surface, any idea what it could be?
r/Astronomy • u/Corgi_underground • 1d ago
Seestar S30 Pro, Bortle 6.7, 560 10/30/60 second subs, processed in Siril using Graxpert, RC-Astro and Veralux tools, GHS on the nebula and stars separately to avoid star bloat.
r/Astronomy • u/paulydavis • 1d ago
M45 — The Pleiades
This is my first time processing this Pleiades image outside the Seestar, using PixInsight and Photoshop to bring out the blue reflection nebulosity in the captured data.
Captured with my Seestar S50 from my backyard in Round Rock, Texas, on August 12, September 24, and September 28, 2025. IR-cut filter, gain 80.
This is a mosaic combining 685 exposures: 671 × 20 seconds and 14 × 30 seconds, for 3 hours, 50 minutes, and 40 seconds of total capture time. Exposure coverage varies across the mosaic, so each part of the image received a different amount of integration.
August 12: 7 minutes September 24: 2 hours, 27 minutes September 28: 1 hour, 16 minutes, 40 seconds
Processed with separate star and nebulosity stretches, background correction, color balance, and noise reduction.
r/Astronomy • u/ServersAreDown_YT • 10h ago
Not sure if this kind of post is allowed here, but I'm wondering if the line features directly below the three connected craters have a name? The three craters, left to right, are Wargentin, Nasmyth, and Phoclyides. The large crater on the left is Schickard. I've searched multiple Lunar feature databases, and those features are never marked or named anywhere I've looked. Thanks!
r/Astronomy • u/A_Reye2678 • 1d ago
🔭 - Seestar S50
⏳ - 7053x20 (39.18h)
⚙️ - Siril & AdobePhotoshop
• This is a 2-panel Mosaic showing off the Heart and Fish Head Nebula under Atlanta, Ga skies. One of my favorites for sure. Hope you enjoy & clear skies to all 💫
r/Astronomy • u/uniofwarwick • 20h ago
r/Astronomy • u/Ghaelmash • 20h ago
Telescope: James Webbs
Filters: f090w, f187w, f200w, f335m, f444w, f444w-f470n
Software used: Astropy, JupyterLab
OS= Ubuntu
Second time i used Astropy to process data from space telescopes. All was doing writing code in python in JupyterLab (you can run block of codes separately). I wrote code to study noise and background for each filters, then i stack them to get the final image in black & white and in RGB. Astropy lets you doing also some scientific processing, so i add the coordinate, study the shock fronts of gases and the noise SNR.
I wanted to make this post because i saw little to no post using Astropy as software to process data. I hope you enjoy it (and to not broke the rules).
r/Astronomy • u/3DLunarSurface • 2d ago
r/Astronomy • u/Techno-Scientist • 1d ago
Taken from my bortle 9 balcony in Paris, this was didn't have such a strong gradient as I normally get here, so I enjoyed the processing a lot! I'd like to revisit this object with my wider FOV rig next year, I think it looks pretty cool
Equipment and acquisition:
- Askar 71F + 0.75X reducer
- Asi585MC Air
- Teseek 17
- SvBony + asi120mm guide camera
- ZWO EAF, ZWO EFW
- L-Ultimate filter: 216 x 180 sec
- Antlia ALP-T SII-OIII 3nm: 233 x 180 sec
(approx. 22.5 hours in total)
- 30 darks, 30 flats per filter, 30 bias
Processing (PI)
WBPP 2x drizzle, SetiAstro AutoDBE, SPCC, blurX correct only, starX
On starless images: DBXtract, linear fit to Ha, then channel combination. Extract L component. SetiAstro statistical stretch (soft), then manual curves transformations with different color and range masks, selective color correction script, noiseX. For luminance, stretch and masked curves to bring up details, noiseX. LRGB combination, dark structure enhance script.
For stars: setiastro NB to RGB star stretch, pixelmath to recombine with starless
r/Astronomy • u/Kyouma118 • 1d ago
The great Orion Nebula and Running Man Nebula! This majestic stellar nursery is about 1400 light-years away and is one of the brightest deep sky objects in the night sky!
A very nostalgic target for me. This was the first deep sky object I captured 10 months back when I was just getting started in this hobby. Visited this back again now that the orion constellation is back up again! 🙂
Telescope: Seestar S50
Data: 4.5 hours
Tools used: GraXpert, Siril, GIMP
Script mentions: DeepSNR, CosmicClarity Sharpen, VeraLux (Revela & Curves), HDR_multiscale
Bortle 8-9
r/Astronomy • u/NoChampionship1765 • 1d ago
I was a 13 year old boy watching this live back then, past midnight, and it was incredibly exciting. This was on BBC1, their main channel, and looking at this through 2026 eyes, this is incredibly hard science.
You would not get coverage like this today. And look at the tech they were using! BBC Model B computers with a mighty 32K of RAM being used in one case. Fred Whipple and Jan Oort being interviewed too.
This is probably still the greatest achievement of European space flight.
r/Astronomy • u/paulydavis • 1d ago
I found this session while going through my stored astrophotography data. I captured it from my Round Rock backyard on October 31–November 1, 2025, but had never processed it. This is its first finished image.
The bright star near the center is Sadr, also known as Gamma Cygni—a supergiant marking the center of the Northern Cross in Cygnus. It appears surrounded by the clouds of IC 1318, but that’s a line-of-sight effect: Sadr is roughly 1,800 light-years away, while the nebula lies much farther behind it, around 4,900 light-years away.
The red nebulosity is glowing hydrogen gas. The dark lanes cutting through it are clouds of dust blocking light from behind. This field captures part of the extensive gas-and-dust complex around Sadr.
The finished image combines 40 five-minute exposures—3 hours and 20 minutes—with my ASI585MC Air. Processing brought out the faint nebulosity and dust structure while controlling the stars and the glow around Sadr. A session sitting on a drive finally became an image.
Acquisition: ASI585MC Air, 40 × 300 seconds retained from 47 frames; gain 107, offset 15, recorded sensor temperatures −19.1 to −16.3°C. The headers record an AM3 mount and approximately 384 mm focal length; the telescope model is unconfirmed. Filter information was not recorded, and I no longer remember which filter was used.
Processing: bias and 100 same-night flats, conservative hot-pixel correction, registration and weighted integration in PixInsight. Compared 29-frame and 40-frame stacks and selected 40 for lower noise. Empirical field-star color balance, conservative BlurXTerminator, StarXTerminator separation, masked NoiseXTerminator, then scripted stretches, local contrast, selective color and localized halo control. Stars were blended back separately. No synthetic nebulosity was added.
r/Astronomy • u/BestRetroGames • 1d ago
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Believe it or not, the image in the eyepiece was even better than the video!
12" DOB + Astral Fields EQ Platform
SVBony 705C + ADC + Barlow 2x
Firecapture + PiPP+ Autostakkert + Registax + Fast Stone Image Viewer
