Critique on my Orion Nebula shot made me rethink my stacking method

Last month I posted a 45-minute stack of M42 in this group and a guy named Tom said my stars looked like donuts. I was kinda pissed at first but looked closer and yeah, the centers were washed out. Turns out I was using too many short subs without darks. Now I run 30 darks at the same ISO and my sharpness doubled. Anyone else get a harsh comment that actually made their photos better?

2 comments

2 Comments

emma_burns9612d ago

Yeah that thing about "stars looking like donuts" really stuck with me too. I had the same issue when I started doing longer stacks, I thought more subs was always better but I was totally wrong about that. Once I added darks and bias frames suddenly my star shapes went from blurry blobs to actual pinpoints. It's crazy how one simple thing like calibration frames can make or break a whole image.

rivera.holly12d ago

Wait, have you ever tried stacking without enough overlap between subs? I went through a phase where I was just randomly pointing my telescope and hoping for the best, and @emma_burns96 your comment about blurry blobs hit me hard because that was basically my life for a month. My images looked like someone smeared Vaseline on the lens, but once I started paying attention to field rotation and dithering, it was like a whole new world of sharp stars.