On my uncle's farm back in 2010, we were building a fence. One guy almost set the posts crooked, but another worker spotted it right before we started digging. It's amazing how easy it is to miss your own mistakes when you've been staring at something too long. Having that extra person around isn't just about labor, it's about catching those small errors that become big problems. Your friend's shed story is a perfect example of why never to work alone on important projects.

You know, a guy in my club had the exact same thing happen with his triplet apo. He was fighting soft stars for weeks and blamed his guiding. What finally clicked for him? He took a set of flats on a night with bad seeing, and that tiny bit of blur got baked into every single sub. He dumped the flats, re stacked just the lights, and the difference in the spiral arms of his M101 was nuts. Seems like if your optics are clean, a small error in the flat can do more harm than the vignetting it fixes. How much extra exposure time are you adding in now instead?

My no-oil fries were so sad they basically cried for a little avocado spray.

Maxcampbell, it's just patterns, not a crime.

Understand exactly what you mean, my shelf of shame is a real mood killer... I keep adding to it every sale, like I'm collecting trophies I'll never use... Makes me wonder why I even bother buying them sometimes.