I was stacking my astro shots for a year before I saw a single one from a dark site

Spent all last winter in my suburban backyard, stacking 50 frames at a time trying to get the Horsehead Nebula. The results were always a muddy, noisy mess. Then I drove three hours to a Bortle 2 zone in the Mojave for one night. I took maybe 15 minutes of total exposure on the same target with the same gear. The single, unstacked sub from that trip was cleaner than my best stacked image from home. It hit me that no amount of fancy processing can beat starting with good data. How many of you are fighting light pollution when you should just plan a trip?

3 comments

3 Comments

sarah_hart21d ago

Oh man, that's the brutal truth right there. I was just reading an article where this astrophotographer said fighting light pollution in processing is like trying to wash mud off a car with more mud. You just can't polish a bad signal. That drive for dark skies sounds totally worth it.

hayden14420d ago

Ever wonder if all that light pollution is messing with wildlife too? Like, birds and bugs that use the stars to get around. Makes the dark sky trips even more important.

rosebarnes20d agoMost Upvoted

Yeah, I'm with @sarah_hart, my backyard shots look like I took them through a dirty sock.