My 100th stacked image of the Orion Nebula looked totally different

I just hit 100 stacked frames on my backyard setup and the noise dropped so much I could see faint dust lanes I never knew were there. Before this, I always thought 30 frames was enough for a decent shot, but stacking that many really does pull out hidden details. It took me three clear nights in October to get all the data. Has anyone else been surprised by how much a high stack count changes a familiar target?

3 comments

3 Comments

joseph_green1310d agoMost Upvoted

Bad seeing makes a noisy mess, not a high stack count.

the_jessica10d ago

Totally get that. Pushing past 50 frames on my last target showed way more gas clouds. Makes me want to re-shoot everything now.

faithpatel10d agoMost Upvoted

My old 30-frame shot of the Orion Nebula still looks fine on my screen. It's easy to get caught in a loop chasing perfect data. I've seen people stack hundreds of frames only to end up with a noisy mess from bad seeing. Sometimes good enough is actually good enough.