The Andromeda Galaxy photo I took last week had a satellite streak through it

I was going through my stack of 30 second exposures from Tuesday night and one frame had a perfect straight line right across Andromeda's core. A quick check on heavens-above.com confirmed it was a Starlink satellite passing at exactly 11:47pm. I'd read that satellite trails were getting more common in astrophotography but seeing it wreck a clean shot surprised me more than I expected. Has anyone else had a satellite photobomb a deep sky target they were working on?

2 comments

2 Comments

jessew8324d agoMost Upvoted

Stack more exposures next time. You can usually just reject that one frame and it won't hurt the final stack much.

betht3224d ago

Wait, wouldn't stacking fewer frames make it harder to get a clean rejection later if the subject moves? I always thought more frames gave you more room to toss the bad ones without messing up the stack.