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I had to pick between a 30-second or 60-second exposure for the Orion Nebula

Went with 60 seconds at ISO 1600, and the extra detail was totally worth the extra noise I had to clean up. Anyone have a better stacking trick for that?

3 comments

3 Comments

logan_gonzalez20d ago

So you're telling me my shaky hands might finally be good for something? (I mean, besides making all my star photos look like abstract art.)

west.henry20d ago

Try stacking with dithering turned on. It scatters the noise pattern between frames, making it average out cleaner. That extra 60-second data is perfect for it.

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reesemoore13d ago

Totally agree with the dithering tip. It's a game changer for killing that fixed pattern noise you get from long exposures. I had the same issue as @logan_gonzalez with my old mount, where every little shake just ruined frames. Dithering between shots uses that movement to your advantage. The noise ends up in different pixels each time, so stacking software can reject it way better. Makes your final stack so much smoother, especially with those 60 second subs.