Hit 1000 photos of the same nebula before I realized my mistake

I was shooting the Orion Nebula every clear night for about 2 months. Stacked around 800 frames in DeepSkyStacker and the detail was still kind of blurry. Turns out I had my focus ring slipping a tiny bit each session because the lock screw was loose. I re-shot 200 frames with it locked down and the stack came out way sharper than all 1000 combined. Has anyone else chased a problem that long only to find it was something simple?

3 comments

3 Comments

sullivan.spencer1mo ago

A buddy of mine spent three months building a custom PC, troubleshooting random crashes and blue screens. He replaced the power supply, the RAM, even the motherboard. Turned out the little metal tab on the I/O shield was sticking into one of the USB ports and shorting something out. He never even noticed it because it was hidden behind the motherboard tray. Stuff like that makes you want to laugh and cry at the same time.

elliot_johnson311mo ago

Haha dude I did the exact same thing with my car once. Spent like 6 weekends chasing a rattling noise under the hood, replaced belts, pulleys, even the alternator. Finally realized it was just a loose bolt on the heat shield that I could have tightened with a 10mm socket in 30 seconds. Felt like such an idiot.

mila_brown101mo ago

I get what you're saying, but honestly that sounds like user error not gear failure. If you're stacking that many frames without checking focus each session you're kinda asking for blur. A couple minutes of checking your lock screw upfront would have saved you two months of frustration lol.