That old guy at the observatory showed me how to stack photos in 5 minutes

I was at a public viewing night at Griffith Park a couple months back and this older fella saw me struggling with my laptop. He leaned over and said "you're overthinking it, just use the free software and stack 15 frames instead of 3." I'd been fighting with blurry shots of Andromeda for weeks, thinking I needed a thousand dollar camera. Twenty minutes later I had a picture that actually showed the dust lanes clear as day. Has anyone else had a random stranger completely change how you shoot?

2 comments

2 Comments

wrenwilson3d ago

Wait, did anyone mention that stacking actually helps with more than just noise? I always thought it was about making things brighter, but that old dude probably saved you from learning the hard way about how single long exposures mess up star shapes. The real game changer is how stacking cuts down on that weird atmospheric wobble, especially when you're shooting through city light pollution like at Griffith. Also, 15 frames is smart because it's enough to smooth things out without making your laptop crash, which mine does if I try to stack 50 frames.

julia8433d ago

So did you find that 15 frames actually gives you enough data to pull out good detail on nebulas and stuff too, or is it more just for star fields?