Stacking 200 frames beat my $2,000 mount upgrade

Everyone told me my star trails were a mount problem, so I saved up and bought a fancy equatorial setup for my backyard in Tucson. Turns out my real issue was just taking 20 second exposures and calling it done. Last month I tried capturing 200 short frames of the Orion Nebula and stacking them in free software instead, no guiding at all. The detail was way sharper than anything my old mount gave me, even with the pricey upgrade sitting idle. Has anyone else found that processing effort outdoes gear, or am I just lucky with my skies?

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1 Comment

the_fiona1mo agoTop Commenter

Tucson skies are honestly half the battle, so don't sell yourself short there. But yeah, I spent two years blaming my mount for soft stars, then tried 150 frames on the Veil Nebula with zero guiding. Stacking fixed more than a thousand bucks of gear ever did. Processing is where the magic happens, not the price tag. You're not lucky, you just figured out what most of us learn way too late.