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Scythels · 3952 days ago · link · · parent · post: Astrophotography: M42 without a Mount or Telescope
talking about "photon gathering" is pretty legitimate, so long as you're shooting RAW, you're literally counting photons. For a normal daytime exposure where there are billions hitting the sensor per second, big deal. But for astrophotography where there are so far fewer, it's a pretty big deal. Think of each photosite as a bucket. Each time a photon hits it, it fills a little more, and the recorded exposure is a little brighter for that pixel. Electronically, each photon disrupts the electric field present on the photosite, and the amount of disruption is the # of photons, and thus exposure level. So yes, photon gathering is something to think about indeed, you just have to be super nerdy. Not that there's anything wrong with that ;)