Stacking fifty images for one shot seems like overkill to me

Everyone acts like you need endless exposures for a clear photo. My single long exposure with a tracker gets the job done. Why is more always considered better in astrophotography?

3 comments

3 Comments

andrew_craig1mo ago

My buddy Dave tried stacking twenty shots of Orion with his basic mount last winter. Honestly the final image just looked like a grainy mess compared to his single tracked exposure.

christopher9521mo ago

Stacking that many shots with a basic mount often just adds up all the tiny tracking errors into one big blurry mess. Dark frames help with camera sensor noise, but they can't fix stars that have already trailed or smeared from a wobbly mount. Dave probably needed way shorter individual exposures to keep the stars sharp before stacking them.

derek_schmidt1mo agoTop Commenter

Using dark frames with 20 shots fixed the grain for me, @andrew_craig.