Why does everyone stack their astro photos with just lights and darks?
I keep seeing people post stacked images that look all blotchy and full of weird streaks, and when I ask, they say they only used lights and darks. That's not enough. You need bias frames and flat frames too, especially if your setup hasn't changed in months. Last week I helped a guy in Tucson who had these horrible vignettes in every shot, and adding 20 flats fixed it instantly. I know it feels like a hassle to shoot calibration frames every session, but I've been doing it since 2019 and my final images are way cleaner. Do you all skip flats because of time, or is there something else going on?