My first try at stacking photos of the Andromeda Galaxy turned into a blurry mess

Last weekend, I finally got a clear night and pointed my telescope at Andromeda. I took about 30 pictures with my DSLR, each one a 30-second exposure. I was so excited to stack them using the free software everyone talks about. But when I ran the program, the final image was just a big, fuzzy gray blob. I was crushed. I checked everything and realized I forgot to take any dark frames. A friend told me those are super important to remove the camera's own noise. So I went back out the next night, took 20 dark frames in my closet, and tried again. The new stacked photo was way cleaner, and I could actually see some dust lanes. It taught me that skipping a simple step can ruin hours of work. What's the one thing you always double-check before you start stacking your photos?

3 comments

3 Comments

jennybailey14d ago

Feel your pain on that blurry blob result, it's the worst. I've been there, rushing to stack after a long night and forgetting to check my alignment points. The software will stack on anything bright, even a hot pixel, and just smear everything. Now I always zoom way in and manually place a few markers on real stars before hitting go.

caseywalker14d ago

Wait, the software can pick a hot pixel? That's wild. @emeryo58, that's way worse than forgetting a coffee filter.

emeryo5814d ago

Ever notice how that happens with everything? I mean, I'll rush through setting up my coffee maker and forget the filter. Same idea, just ruins your whole morning.