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Nico Carver

Nico Carver

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Nico Carver posts

NEAF Meet-up, April 15th, 3PM

I'll be attending NEAIC and NEAF this year, and thought it would be fun to do an informal meetup! 

To get a sense for how many people will attend the meet-up, please add your name/email here if you plan on going: 2023-04-04 17:56:10 +0000 UTC View Post

Nebula Photos Sunday Chat #24 Recording

Open Discussion and Q&A on April 2, 2023. Thank you everyone for coming! Very nice turn-out. 

The next Sunday Chat will be on May 7, 2023, and I will also do a themed chat in May on DSLR astrophotography with portable star trackers (date/time TBA).

Upcoming events will always be announced here on Patreon, but also added to this calendar: 2023-04-03 16:48:51 +0000 UTC View Post

Nebula Photos Sunday Chat #24, Tomorrow, 2023-04-02

Nebula Photos Sunday Chat #24 will take place tomorrow Sunday, April 2, 2023 at 18:00 UTC (7pm UK, 2pm EDT, 11am PDT) on Zoom, and run for about an hour.

This one will be an open Q&A and discussion on any astrophotography-related topics with no set agenda. We will start with any beginner questions and questions from new members before getting in to more advanced questions and discussi...

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Nebula Photos Themed Chat #1 - Untracked Astrophotography

Unfortunately my home internet was down, so I had to join the chat from my cell phone in my car. 

Despite my technical difficulties, it was still  a very good chat - thank you everyone for joining and bringing all your great questions, insights, and examples! I look forward to the next themed chat. 

Image of Orion Nebula at 16:02 came from patron Guillermo S. - sorry ...

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Reminder: Themed Chat #1 - Untracked Astrophotography stars in 80 minutes


Just a reminder that this is starting in 80 minutes!
Today, Friday, March  10th at 7pm ET (12am UTC) will be the first 'Themed Chat' for Patreon members where I will give a short presentation, and the entire Q&A and discussion will be around a theme. This time, t...

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Nebula Photos Sunday Chat #23 Recording

Open Q&A and Discussion on March 5th, 2023. 

Next chat will be this Friday, March 10th on 'Untracked Astrophotography'. I will send a reminder.

-Nico

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Sunday Chat #23, Themed Chat #1, NEAIC, Events Calendar

Wow, February flew by! I hope to get some time with the winter nebulae this month before they are gone. 

I have a number of announcements to share about upcoming events both virtual and in-person:

Sunday Chat #23
Nebula Photos Sunday Chat #23 will take place at the normal time this Sunday, March 5th at 2pm ET. Here is the Zoom link: 2023-03-03 22:30:49 +0000 UTC View Post

Bonus Video: Extended Conversation with Daniel Fiordalis, Creator of Astrospheric

My latest video over on YouTube called Everything You Need to Find CLEAR SKIES is a deep-dive on weather forecasting for astronomy. If you've watched it already, you saw that the backbone of the video was a really in-depth Zoom call I had with Daniel Fiordalis, creator of 2023-02-17 17:40:08 +0000 UTC View Post

Nebula Photos Sunday Chat #22 Recording

A good mix of topics in an open Q&A. Thanks everyone for coming!

~Nico

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Nebula Photos Sunday Chat #22, Feb. 12th, 19:00 UTC

Nebula Photos Sunday Chat #22 will take place this Sunday, February 12th, 2023 at 19:00 UTC (7pm UK, 2pm EST, 11am PST) on Zoom, and run for about an hour.

This one will be an open Q&A and discussion on any astrophotography-related topics with no set agenda. We will start with any beginner questions and questions from new members before getting in to more advanced questions and discus...

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New Video Premiere - Friday 1/20/23 at 2pm ET

Tomorrow I will be premiering a new video that I plan to be the first part in a many part series on my attempt to capture an analemma in 2023. This first part will cover the basics of picking a location, and planning the shot using the free program Stellarium (https://stellarium.org). Hope you can join! I will be in the live chat....

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Nebula Photos Sunday Chat #21 Recording

01/15/2023 - Introductions and General Q&A  

There was a fairly lengthy discussion on Comet C/2022 E3 (ZTF) since the best time to view/photograph it will be in the coming two weeks. For PixInsight users, here is a video from Shawn (VisibleDark) on Comet registration and stacking: 2023-01-16 18:49:41 +0000 UTC View Post

Next Sunday Chat and Other Announcements

Next Sunday Chat

Nebula Photos Sunday Chat #21 will take place this Sunday, January 15th, 2023 at 19:00 UTC (7pm UK, 2pm EST, 11am PST) on Zoom, and run for about an hour.

It will be an open Q&A and discussion on any astrophotography-related topics with no set agenda. We will start with any beginner questions and questions from new members befo...

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Free Data Download; Imaging Challenge with Prize; New Time for Monthly Chat?

Happy new year everyone! In 2023, I will be putting a lot more time into Patreon, offering more benefits and exclusive resources for members. As the title suggests, this post will cover a few different topics.

Monthly Chat

Every month, we get together on Zoom for an informal Q&A / Chat and sometimes a brief presentation or demo. We have been doing these on the f...

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Last Premiere of 2022 Tomorrow - Wed. Dec. 28th, 4pm ET - Harmonic Drive Mount Showdown

New video premiering tomorrow (Wednesday, 12/28) at 4pm ET (9pm UK, 1pm  PT). Trying a bit later in the day for this one. It is a 41 minute long video review of the ZWO AM5, the iOptron HEM27, and the Sky-watcher EQ6-R (this is the control). As usual I will be in the live chat to answer your questions. Hope some of you can make it!

Hope everyone gets some clear skies to round out 202...

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Premiere 12/23 at 2pm ET - Who gives better astrophotography advice?

New video premiering tomorrow (Friday, 12/23) at 2pm ET (7pm UK, 11am PT). It is 36 minutes long, and I will be in the live chat! Hope to see you there. 

In this video I answer questions sent in by you! We will compare my answers to the answers given by a new chatbot that has been in the news called 'ChatGPT' to see if AI is ready to take my job! Find out tomorrow :) 

Many...

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I'm going full-time with Nebula Photos thanks to all of you!

Exciting news! I'm going full-time with Nebula Photos in 2023. This is only possible due to your generous support here on Patreon. Thank you!! There are also a few personal updates in the video for anyone interested. :)

I also want to apologize to anyone affected by the auto-renewal email bug this past weekend. This seems to have been a Patreon-wide software glitch where many people rece...

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I need your help for an upcoming video

Update: I have all the questions I need. Thanks to everyone who sent one in! ~Nico

Happy Holidays everyone!

Lately, I have been playing around with OpenAI's chatbot 'ChatGPT'. This is a chatbot sitting on top of the world's largest natural language learning model. I've started asking it astrophotography-related questions, and have found the answers it gives to be ve...

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Star Trails on your iPhone - Video Premiere Tomorrow (12/15 at 12pm ET)

I have a new video premiering tomorrow at 12pm ET. I will be in the chat if you'd like to stop by. This will be a normal youtube video after the premiere concludes. This video is about 18.5 minutes long and is a tutorial on how to capture star trails images and timelapses on the iPhone. 

Clear skies, Nico

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Nebula Photos Sunday Chat #20 Recording

12/11/2022 - A.T. Astrophotography and Nico show off their processing of the Summer group project then general Q&A.   

YouTube channels mentioned: 

A.V. Astronomy - https://www.youtube.com/c/AVAstronomy

Pauly Man Astro - 2022-12-13 03:48:07 +0000 UTC View Post

Nebula Photos Sunday Chat #20, Sunday Dec. 11, 19:00 UTC

Nebula Photos Sunday Chat #20 will take place this Sunday, December 11th, 2022 at 19:00 UTC (7pm UK, 2pm EST, 11am PST) on Zoom, and run for about an hour. 

We will start with anyone that would like to share anything about their processing of the summer group imaging projects. 

After that, the rest of the time will be used for an open Q&A and discussio...

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Vaonis Vespera Review - Video Premiere on Wed. Nov. 30

I have a new comparison review video premiering Wednesday (11/30) at 12 noon ET (9am PT, 17:00 UTC, 5pm UK time). It is approximately 19.5 minutes long. Hope to see some of you there in the live chat! In this video:

  • I walk through my experience of using a Vaonis Vespera vs. my Spare Parts Rig
  • Explore the pros and cons of each setup
  • Show the results of a shoot-out o...

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Nebula Photos Sunday Chat #19 Recording

Here is the recording of the Sunday Chat yesterday, 11/6/2022. Thanks to everyone for coming and the great questions and discussion.

~Nico

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Nebula Photos Sunday Chat #19, Sunday Nov. 6th, 19:00 UTC

Nebula Photos Sunday Chat #19 will take place this Sunday, November 6th, 2022 at 19:00 UTC (7pm UK, 2pm EST, 11am PST) on Zoom, and run for about an hour. Note: the time will be consistent for places that are switching from Daylight Savings to Standard time on November 6th, but will be an hour later than normal for places that aren't switching. 

This...

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Hi-Tech GO-TO Star Trackers - Video Premiere on Wed. Oct. 26

I have a new comparison review video premiering Wednesday (10/26) at 12 noon ET (9am PT, 16:00 UTC, 5pm UK time). It is approximately 22.5 minutes long. Hope to see some of you there in the live chat! In this video:

  • I walk through the setup procedures for these two small mounts, including the use of their companion smartphone apps
  • Share the results of a star tracking test View Post

Askar 130PHQ Review - Video Premiere on Thurs. Oct. 13

I have a new video premiering Thursday (10/13) at 12 noon ET (9am PT, 16:00 UTC, 5pm UK time). It is approximately 22.5 minutes long. Hope to see some of you there in the chat! In this video I am talking about some of the challenges of using a long, heavy refractor with my mobile (car-based) setup for astrophotography, and I review the new Askar 130PHQ with 0.7x reducer. 

As mentione...

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Nebula Photos Sunday Chat #18 Recording

Recording of the Sunday Chat yesterday, 10/9/2022. Updates on the Group Imaging Projects and general Q&A. Thank you to everyone who came and contributed your great questions and comments!

~Nico

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Nebula Photos Sunday Chat #18 - Sunday Oct. 9, 18:00 UTC

Nebula Photos Sunday Chat #18 will take place this Sunday, October 9th, 2022 at 18:00 UTC (7pm UK, 2pm EDT, 11am PDT) on Zoom, and run for about an hour.

This Sunday Chat will begin with some preliminary information and results from the Summer Group Imaging Projects (Lagoon and Veil Nebulae). If you signed up for either project, the deadline for submitting data is tomorrow, Friday, Octobe...

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Stacking Showdown - Video Premiere on Friday Sept. 30th

I have a new video premiering Friday (9/30) at 12 noon ET (9am PT, 16:00 UTC, 5pm UK time). It is approximately 43 minutes long. Hope to see some of you there in the chat! In this video I am comparing eight different software packages that can calibrate, register, and stack deep sky images. 

The next Nebula Photos Sunday Chat will NOT take place this Sunday. I am delaying it one week...

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Nebula Photos Sunday Chat #17 Recording

Here is the recording from the Zoom chat this past Sunday. Thanks to everyone who came and made it such an enjoyable chat! They always go by quickly for me. See you next month. ~Nico

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