Pro tip: stacking your moon shots with free software changed everything

I spent months trying to get a sharp photo of the moon through my basic telescope, always ending up with blurry edges. Then I read about taking a video instead of a single photo and stacking the frames in a free program called AutoStakkert. It sorted through hundreds of frames and picked only the sharp ones, then combined them into one crisp image. The difference was night and day, my wife even asked if I bought a new lens. Has anyone else tried stacking for planets like Jupiter or Saturn?

3 comments

3 Comments

simontorres26d ago

My first time stacking Jupiter I got maybe 200 usable frames out of 3000 and I was thrilled... the bands were actually visible for once instead of just a blurry yellow blob. @troyp37 is right about PIPP being a game changer for planets, I had the same problem with Jupiter drifting all over my frames until I started using it first. Honestly that moment when AutoStakkert finishes processing and you see all that detail pop up makes you feel like you've been doing astronomy wrong your whole life. My wife just rolls her eyes now when I get excited about another stack but she can't deny the photos look way better than my old attempts.

troyp3729d ago

Yeah stacking for planets is actually even more noticeable than the moon. Jupiter and Saturn come out way clearer since you're fighting atmospheric turbulence with all those frames. I'd suggest trying PIPP first to center the planet in each frame before feeding it to AutoStakkert if you haven't already, really cleans things up.

cameron76329d ago

Man I've been doing this same workflow for about three years now with my 8 inch dob and it's night and day different from just taking single shots. PIPP really does save a ton of headache, especially when you have 5000 frames to sort through and half of them are garbage because of a gust of wind. I remember my first Jupiter stack before using PIPP and the planet was all over the place from frame to frame, and AutoStakkert just couldn't grab onto anything clean. After running it through PIPP first everything just lined up so much smoother and I actually got banding detail I never saw before. It's one of those steps that feels like extra work but honestly saves you time in the end.