I finally stopped editing my moon shots and stacked the raw files instead, the difference was not even close

Kelly Nelson · 2026-10-10T12:30:02.819342+00:00

For about a year I was taking single shots of the moon with my old Canon and then messing with them in editing software, and they always came out soft and grainy no matter what I did. Two nights ago I shot 200 frames in a row on a tripod in my backyard and ran them through a free stacking program instead. The stacked version had crater edges I could actually pick out along the terminator, stuff that was just mush in every single frame before. I think I was basically fighting noise that stacking just averages away for free. Does anyone here still shoot single frames on purpose, or is stacking just the way everyone does it now?

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I finally stopped editing my moon shots and stacked the raw files instead, the difference was not even close | Astronomy Photos - Opinions Matter