Nico Carver

Why do we use the MESSIER Catalog?

New Five Minute Friday video! I will be visiting family this next week, so might be a bit slower to answer messages. Thanks for your understanding. :) - Nico

What is a DEEP SKY OBJECT?

First in a new video series called 'Five Minute Fridays'. Each Friday, I'll share a brief explanatory video about one topic related to Amateur Astronomy / Astrophotography. 

Canon EOS Ra - Everything I’ve Learned

This video may not have wide appeal beyond Canon Ra owners or potential owners, but it's something I desperately wanted to finish, so I'm very glad to get it done and uploaded. 😁

The Power of AstroBin

New video up today. It's an overview of some of the features of AstroBin for planning your next astrophoto. If you are new to AstroBin, sign up using my link: https://tinyurl.com/astrobin-nebula If you use my link when registering, you will get 10% off your subscription if you get any paid account in 2021.

I am an AstroBin Ambassador. So if you have any questions about the website, please let me know.

Capturing the Aurora (Patreon Exclusive)

This is the recording of my presentation from our Zoom Chat yesterday. The presentation is 12.5 minutes and covers my trip to photograph the Aurora in 2014, and a few tips I picked up. I didn't realize it would record people's faces on the right, so I blurred them out to protect people's privacy. 

Here is a PDF for the slides I presented: https://www.nebulaphotos.com/doc/aurora-photography.p...

Reminder: Nebula Photos Sunday Chat TODAY (Sunday, April 25, 19:00 UTC)

In about five hours we will have the first Nebula Photos Sunday Chat. Feel free to pop in even if you can't stay for the whole thing. I think it will go for at least an hour, maybe longer depending on how much discussion there is. Here's an agenda:

1. Welcome and introductions 

2. Brief presentation on capturing the Aurora Borealis 

3. Share your images! 

4. Q&A and general chat

Please bring your astrophotos to share with the group, and bri...

How To Find ANY Deep Sky Object

New 16 minute video published today! It is an overview of star hopping and plate solving, which I think of as the 'old school' and 'new school' ways of using star patterns to find your deep sky object. With a go-to mount, you might be able to just use plate solving and never learn star hopping, but I think it is a very valuable skill to learn. 

Hope everyone is having a nice start to the week. If you are new to my Patreon, I'd encourage you to join the Discord channel: 2021-04-19 15:58:47 +0000 UTC View Post

First ever Nebula Photos LIVE Sunday Chat, April 25, 19:00 UTC

If you are interested in joining in with me and others in the Nebula Photos Patreon community for a live presentation, chat, Q&A, and image sharing session, we will be having the first one next Sunday, April 25th at 19:00 UTC on Zoom:

https://smithsonian.zoom.us/j/87830336026?pwd=UTZTQmgydm5GN0JuWUlraUhtK0Ezdz09 

Bring your questions and your astrophotos ...

Video Premiere - Thursday 3/25 at 3pm ET

New video on making and using a $30 'barn door' tracker. Comes out tomorrow at 3pm ET. It's 22 minutes long.

Patreon Exclusive Video!

This video is just for the amazing community here on Patreon. Hope you enjoy! I also made a 1-page summary PDF you can use as a reference: https://www.nebulaphotos.com/doc/handout-DSOs-byType.pdf

Join the Nebula Photos Discord Server: https://discord.gg/nebulaphotos 

Premiere - Tuesday Feb. 23 at 1:30pm ET

New video premiere tomorrow at 1:30pm. This one features Trevor Jones of Astrobackyard. Hope to see you there!

Q&A and Big Giveaway

Premieres in 2 hours (12:30pm EST, 2/9/2021) on youtube. If you can't make the premiere, no worries! You can still fill out the survey to enter the giveaway anytime before February 17, 2021. You will just need to watch the video to get the password.

Still working on the patreon-exclusive video. Not going to give a date, but just know it's still on my mind!

4 Levels of Orion

Just a quick video I made this weekend for fun. A bit different from my usual stuff, but I enjoyed making it with my girlfriend. 

Hope everyone's week is off to a good start!

-Nico

50k Q&A - questions needed!

Looks like the channel may hit 50,000 subscribers pretty soon (maybe even in time for my birthday on Feb. 6). To mark the occasion, I've decided to do a Q&A and giveaway. For the Q&A part, I'd like to receive the questions ahead of time, and then I will record a video with my answers (and details about entering the giveaway). So, please ask me anything below! Your questions can be about anything you wish.

Pleiades Part 2A - DSS&GIMP

Per the usual routine, releasing part 2s as I make them over the next week or so. 

Cheers, Nico

New benefit - Discord community

Hello all, I had been hesitant to start this since I don't have a lot of free time, but it was actually pretty painless to create. Discord is a group messaging app where we can have conversations and share links/photos in real-time. I won't be able to be active every day, but I recognize there is a lot of experience in our group, so I am hoping this can be a positive place to chat and share for all. If you join, please be respectful on there. There is no pressure to join; please still feel fr...

TRACKER vs. NO TRACKER Premiere TONIGHT

PREMIERE of new video TONIGHT (1/14), 6:00-7:25 PM Eastern: https://youtu.be/mYucAuUrdTs

Hope to see some of you there. It will be available as a regular video to watch immediately following the premiere.

Fisheye Lenses for Astrophotography - SHOOTOUT

Glad to have this one done! Started in September, just finished today. Check out my new website for camera lens reviews: https://astrolenses.com that I launched alongside this video too.

And thank you, thank you, thank you all for the support here on Patreon! The financial support is what allows me to purchase/rent all this stuff to review it. 

GREAT CONJUNCTION of Jupiter and Saturn from the CITY

Put together a video very quickly (just filmed it a few hours ago) about the upcoming conjunction. I focused on a few basic tips for viewing / photographing it from the city. Go see it if you can!!

Poll Result and December Update

The poll for the patreon-exclusive video has wrapped up and the winner is...

"Sky and equipment requirements for different kinds of deep sky objects -- emission nebula, galaxies, milky way, star clusters, etc."

This video should not be too hard for me to make, so I expect I can have it to you all by the end of January!

I am also finishing up my Fisheye Lens shootout review. And have started work on a few other videos including a fun one where I will compare the results of tr...

Live Premiere Tomorrow (12/9, 6-10pm ET)

Tomorrow (Wednesday, 12/9) from 6 to 10 PM Eastern Time join me for a live premiere of my new video where I will be critiquing 100 of your astrophotos! Feel free to stop by any time during the four hour window to ask questions and discuss all things astrophotography in the live chat. Hope to see you there: https://youtu.be/dM0GhhutmxA

Poll for Exclusive Patreon Video (100 patrons!)

Hello all! I've gone through your comments from the post in October, and whittled them down to following options. Please vote for your favorites. You can vote for more than one, but please limit your votes to 2-3 choices so we can try to determine a clear favorite. The video with the most votes at the end of the month is the one I will make. When complete, it will post exclusively here on Patreon. By the way, all of these are videos I'd be happy to make eventually and release on YouTube, so e...

Light Pollution Filter Shootout now up!

6 months in the making :) Thanks for sticking with me on this one. There are a couple reasons it took so long. One: I wanted to test the transmission curves on my filters and that meant building some kind of reliable testing apparatus (a spectrophotometer). Two: I had to think through how I would handle reviews on the channel, see my review policy video if interested: https://youtu.be/RvN2d9wLR3I Three: I was going back and ...

100 Patrons! Time for an exclusive video!

Wow, did not think I'd get to 100 patrons this fast! Thank you all!!

As a perk for being one of my first 100 patrons, you get to choose the topic for an exclusive video that will only be available here on Patreon.

Here's how the process will work: 

1. Suggest video topics in the comments below. If you see your idea, please reply to that comment with a "+1" so I know it's a popular idea. 

2. After one week, I will go through the comments and pick out videos I ...

Andromeda, Part 2C, PixInsight now up!

Just an announcement that the final part in the Andromeda without tracker series is up. This one is on PixInsight. 

I also had a productive weekend recording scenes for my first two REVIEW videos. One on Light Pollution Filters, and the other on Fisheye Lenses. I expect both of these videos out this month, as well as my 30k Subs Astrophoto Critique video. 

Next month, I plan to release Pleiades (M45) without tracker (already shot it with the same setup as the Andromeda v...

Andromeda, Part 2B, Siril & GIMP now up!

Just an announcement that the next part in the Andromeda without tracker series is up. This one will be handy for Mac and Linux users since Deep Sky Stacker is Windows only. Siril works just as well in my experience, and has some handy, additional features (like Color Calibration, and Background Extraction) that you could optionally try out before moving to GIMP.

Hoping to get a lot done this weekend video-wise. Might try some planetary with my dob tonight!

Andromeda, Part 2A, DSS & GIMP now up

https://youtu.be/K5b9PVwSB6Q

Since YouTube is hit or miss about notifications. I will be posting all my video uploads here from now on. So this is just a notification that Part 2A (DSS+GIMP) for my newest series is now live. Part 2B (Siril+GIMP) and 2C (PixInsight) should be uploaded by the end of the week. Working on a number of exciting other videos as well. 

Hope everyone is doing well. We have had some s...

Video Premiere - 9/10/2020 at 2pm ET

Wow, how is it already September?! I have a new video premiering tomorrow. Continuing with the recent theme of astrophotography without a star tracker or telescope; this time we will be capturing M31. I think it's one of my better untracked astrophotos and better videos so far! Hope you can join me at 2pm Eastern for the premiere. If not, the video will of course be available afterwards. https://youtube.com/c/nebulaphotos<...

First filters video up!

Hey everyone! A few months back, you all chose the topic of my next video by popular vote in a poll. The winning topic was 'affordable filters for DSLR deep sky astrophotography'. I had so much to say that I struggled to make this in to one video, and decided it should be a series. So, here is the first video in what will be an ongoing series on 'filters for DSLR astrophotography'. This is an intro and my attempt to answer the questions I get the most often. After I answer some basic question...

New video up! Collaboration with Helena's Astro

Just wanted to alert everyone on here in case you didn't get notified by YouTube that I have a new video up showing HaRGB combination/processing. It is a collaborative effort with another YouTuber: Helena, a young astrophotography from Scotland! Hope you enjoy it. 

First two videos on FILTERS are coming THIS month!! I know it's been a long wait, but I really wanted to get these right, which meant a lot of research and testing.

Thanks for sticking with me, and please remember ...