TIL that stacking darks and flats is pointless if your sensor is hot

Spent 3 hours shooting calibration frames for my M31 shot last week, only to find out my camera was running at 85 degrees the whole time and none of them matched. A guy on CloudyNights warned me about chip temperature but I figured close enough was fine. Anyone else brick a night of stacking because they skipped the cooling check?

3 comments

3 Comments

wells.karen29d ago

Close enough was fine" - yeah, that's the trap. I did the exact same thing last fall with some Ha shots. Spent a whole night on darks at 60F, then my flats were at 75F because I got lazy. The gradient removal was a MESS, totally ruined the fine nebula detail. Now I have a little temp log taped to my rig so I never skip checking it again. Live and learn, really.

oscar74329d ago

You ever have one of those nights where you just want to chuck your whole rig in the trash? I feel your pain on this one. I spent a whole weekend shooting 200 darks for a Heart Nebula project, only to realize later my cooler was set to 0C but my lights were at -10C because of a setting glitch. The stacked result looked like someone spilled coffee on it, and I lost all the fine hydrogen detail in the core. Hope your M31 data was salvageable at least, or did you have to start from scratch?

patriciah5126d ago

The coffee spill comparison is brutally accurate, I had a similar situation with a Pacman Nebula where my flats were at the wrong temperature and the final stack looked like I'd taken it through a dirty windshield. At this point I'm convinced half of astrophotography is just learning new and creative ways to sabotage yourself.