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Read about stacking exposures and tried it on Orion last night
I saw a post where someone said you need at least 60 seconds of total exposure time to get good detail on deep sky objects. So I stacked 12 five-second shots of Orion with free software and actually saw the nebula structure. Has anyone else had better luck with shorter subs versus fewer long ones?
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dylanward1mo ago
Honestly, the 60 second rule is more of a rough starting point than a hard limit. I've had way better luck with 150 stacked 2 second subs on Orion than I did with a handful of 20 second shots. The real trick is getting enough frames to drown out the sensor noise, and short subs let you do that without blowing out the core of the nebula. What camera and bortle zone were you shooting in though? I feel like that changes the math a lot more than people admit.
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the_lisa1mo ago
Wow, I'm glad you brought that up! I used to be OBSESSED with getting those long 30 second subs, thinking anything shorter was basically useless for DSOs. But after a night of trying to fight cloud cover and light pollution with my old DSLR, I finally caved and did exactly what you described - a ton of 5 second shots of Orion. The difference was NIGHT and day. My stacked 60 short frames actually showed way more of the nebula structure than my previous attempts with a few 20 second shots, and the core wasn't that gross blown out white blob. You totally convinced me that stacking a bunch of short subs is the real secret, especially if you're stuck in a suburban backyard like me.
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