Feedback from a stranger at the observatory changed my stacking process

I was at a local star party last month, showing off my Andromeda shot I spent 4 hours on. This older guy looked at it for a second and said 'your darks are too noisy, you need at least 20 calibration frames.' I had only taken 5 darks before that night. I went home, re-shot everything with 25 darks and 15 flats, and the difference was night and day. Has anyone else gotten a random tip from a total stranger that completely shifted their workflow?

2 comments

2 Comments

felix_hayes641mo ago

Wait, did the guy actually look at your data on a laptop or did he just eyeball your print? I'm curious because if he spotted noisy darks just from looking at a finished image on a screen, that dude has some serious eyes. I've had something similar happen with flats though. A random guy at my club saw me struggling with vignetting on my crescent moon shot and just said "turn off your auto-stretch when you take flats, use the histogram at 60%." I had been doing it wrong for like two years. It changed everything for my processing. I think sometimes we get so stuck on the technical stuff that a fresh pair of eyes can spot the dumb mistake we've been making forever.

elliot_johnson311mo ago

Dude, you're spot on about the fresh eyes thing @felix_hayes64. I had a guy at my local group look at a basic M31 shot I was struggling with and just said "your flats are overcorrecting, take them at the same ISO next time." I had been messing with that for weeks. It's wild how we can stare at our own issues and miss them.