This is an image of the Ghost Nebula that I captured last fall and finally finished
processing a couple weeks ago. I printed it out here at 300 dpi, and at arm's length I see
absolutely nothing wrong with it. The details, the colors, the composition, they all look just
as I had in my mind's eye as exactly as I planned. And this is a bucket list image for me, a close-up
image of the ghost nebula is one of a handful of images that I've been thinking about for years.
So I should feel this great sense of accomplishment but instead all I feel
is disappointment. And I know the reason. The reason is I've inadvertently become a full-on
pixel peeper and for anyone that's not familiar with this disease it can infect any photographer
but I think astrophotographers are especially susceptible to it. When you become a full-on
pixel peeper like I have you can't enjoy the image as a whole anymore because you know that if you
zoom in far enough there's a technical fault holding this image back from its true potential
and that technical fault could be any number of things but in this case the technical fault is a
common one with astrophotography these stars are not round they are misshapen if I draw a perfectly
round circle around the star in Photoshop you can see the star is more like a rounded triangle than
it is a circle and you might be thinking that's nuts who cares they look round enough when you
look at the whole image as it's meant to be seen not zoomed into 400 percent like I'm showing here
and I mean I agree with you but you have to understand it doesn't matter for me pixel
peeping becomes this obsessive thought pattern that I can't escape once I know there is a
technical issue with my image and it genuinely feels like the only path forward is to burn this
image move on completely knowing I'm not going to be happy until I can fix that technical issue and
then that Loops right into another disease that astrophotographers can catch very easily which is
GAS: Gear Acquisition Syndrome and let me explain how this syndrome works. Let's say I didn't know
why my stars weren't round I actually do think I know but let's pretend I didn't know why and so
I go online you know I go on the forums, I go on Astrobin, I go on Instagram, I go anywhere where
there's more experienced astrophotographers that maybe can help me maybe even ones that use the
same telescope as me what's the problem why are my stars so bad and I get several answers maybe
a few different answers but there seems to be a consensus forming they all say oh that mount you
use the Sky-watcher EQ6R that's a bit small you're a bit undermounted for the Askar 130PHQ and so all
you need is a bigger more expensive Mount and then my star shape problem is going to be solved and
that may be true but even if I fix this issue with the star shape will I be finally happy with
my next image unfortunately I can already tell you no I won't because you see when you become
a pixel peeper and you have GAS gear acquisition syndrome there is always a new problem and that
new problem can always be solved with a new piece of gear and there is no end to that it's
this unending cycle and for me and I think many others in the hobby this is what astrophotography
can feel like sometimes and there are obviously some big issues with that if you're constantly
feeling disappointed with your images it can be hard to maintain enthusiasm for the Hobby
and then if you're constantly buying new gear you can quickly justify draining your life savings on
the new Mount the new telescope the new camera whatever is coming out uh you know this week
and what I've painted so far it may sound like a pretty dire situation and you might be thinking
why does anyone pursue astrophotography at all well I've been thinking about this in respect to
myself and I realize there have been periods where I've been much happier with what I was producing
and it's not because the images were necessarily any better than they are now it really just came
down to two things one I wasn't comparing myself to others instead I was only comparing the quality
of my current images to my own past images and I think that can be a very healthy thing to do
I think you'll find when you do that that you always can appreciate the progress you've made
in the Hobby and then the second thing that made me happier is I was committed to just
one rig whenever I've committed myself to not changing anything out from night to night keeping
with the same camera, the same mount, the same optics, the same filters for month after month
after month I've been able to focus on making the best of that setup and I think that's when I've
actually grown the most as an astrophotographer when I've slowed down and said I'm not going to
spend any money I'm gonna try to make the best possible image with what I have in this moment
and for me I will admit I haven't had a stable rig like that in years partly because of this YouTube
channel taking off I'm always wanting to review the newest telescopes and lenses and filters and
cameras and mounts and everything else that comes out okay I've gone a bit off track now because
what I I wanted to say I do actually think I know why my stars are triangular and it comes down to
my own laziness I know quite well that when I put an Ascar 130PHQ and three counterweights and all
this other stuff on soft ground at the weight of it all can make the tripod sink into the ground
unevenly this throws off polar alignment then the auto guider has to work harder and you get ever
so slightly misshapen stars in each sub-exposure but when you combine all of the data together over
multiple nights and different filters Imaging on both sides of the meridian your stars end
up looking triangular because they're they're misshapen in different directions and I could
have avoided all that by just remembering to put down some bricks or concrete blocks to stop the
tripod from sinking into the ground it's a very inexpensive solution that I didn't do but here's
the thing there are hundreds of things like this in astrophotography things that we do or forget
to do that cause small technical issues that hold our images back from their Highest Potential so
pixel peeping isn't all bad and I know I've been harping on it for the whole video up until now but
the truth is you can often figure out inexpensive solutions that don't lead to gas gear acquisition
syndrome and by adding these little fixes together like putting blocks underneath your
tripod legs you can actually let pixel peeping lead you into greatly improving your skill as an
astrophotographer over time because each little fix that you figure out compounds until you're
getting really good data out of your setup as long as you're not changing too many things
and you don't improve in that same way by just buying new gear for example if I had just gone
out and bought a new heavier Mount set it up on the same soft ground I would have run into
the exact same problem or even worse and maybe next I'd think oh well well I guess the problem
isn't the mound it must be the telescope I need a new telescope now but because I tried setting
everything up on concrete bricks and found that you know this rig was perfectly capable of getting
round stars like in this image of m81 and M82 I have now used pixel peeping to my advantage I've
internalized an easy fix and know that this rig is perfectly capable of rendering round Stars across
the field at a thousand millimeter focal length if I put in all these little fixes into place
but knowing all that am I cured from Pixel peeping and gear acquisition syndrome just
because I know what the real problem is and I found a solution to this particular problem no
unfortunately there's always going to be new products that seem interesting and it's very
hard for me not to feel like some new piece of gear is going to be this X Factor that brings my
images you know to this next level even though on a rational level I know I'd have everything
I need already to take world-class images I don't need any more gear and I I guess I'll share this
it's it's all gotten more confusing for me with doing astrophotography YouTube is a career because
sometimes gear that I want for the channel like a full frame uh monochrome camera with small pixels
that would be really useful for really showing the differences between different telescopes at the
extremes of their image circles and really sort of drawing comparisons it but that's not something I
personally want at all I have no interest in that really because I know that a full-frame camera
with small pixels is a nightmare for Pixel peepers like me because there's just so many factors that
go into making that work the main one being tilt can be a nightmare with a camera like that it's
just a whole can of worms and I'd usually avoid it but I'm still toying with getting one because
I think it could be useful for making my videos better the reviews especially so I've lately felt
this struggle between where the YouTube channel is leading me versus where my personal passion in
astrophotography would lead me and something I've been thinking about regarding that is I really
want to get back to having a dedicated personal rig where I can just not change anything out take
months or even years to fine tune it and just work on my passion projects with it my bucket
list images so I'm very excited that I'm actually going to be constructing a backyard Observatory
on my property here in New Hampshire this summer and I'm going to put in two piers and one Pier is
going to be just for me I'm going to put whatever Mount telescope and camera that I'm feeling most
in tune with and I'm going to just stick to that and probably not even talk much about
that rig on the YouTube channel because it's my personal thing and I'm just going to go after my
bucket list of images that I've always wanted to get and really just concentrate on personal
growth in the hobby with that rig with that Pier and then with the other Pier I can test whatever
needs testing continue offering my shootout reviews and other Mainstays of the channel
and so even though this video uh maybe was a little negative I don't know but don't worry about
me I have a plan for how I'm gonna handle all this and hopefully break out of this cycle that I felt
like I've been in and if you're struggling with either pixel peeping or gear acquisition syndrome
or both and you want to you know share publicly let us know in the comments and I hope this maybe
can be a little uh the comment section could be a little positive support group maybe with some
ideas for how others have broken free and gotten back to just enjoying the Hobby and their images
that they're making well till next time this has been Nico Carver I wish all of you clear skies