Stacking multiple exposures of the Orion Nebula finally made the clouds pop for me

Been trying to get a decent shot of M42 with my DSLR on a tripod for like 2 years. Single 30 second exposures always came out looking washed out or just a fuzzy blob. Last week I finally sat down and stacked like 40 frames in DeepSkyStacker for the first time. The difference was insane. Suddenly all those dust lanes and that bright core showed up. Now I just gotta figure out how to not get star trails on longer exposures. Anyone use a star tracker for under $300 that actually works?

3 comments

3 Comments

elizabethmason8d ago

Forty frames is solid but honestly I think you can get way more out of single exposures with a decent intervalometer and some careful processing. I shot Orion last winter with just a Nikon D5300 on a tripod, 15 second exposures at ISO 1600, stacked maybe 60 of those and got details in the nebula that surprised me. The trick for me was taking flat frames and dark frames too, they really cleaned up the noise without needing a tracker. What's your post processing workflow like?

patricia_gonzalez8d ago

Honestly I used to think you absolutely needed a tracker to get anything decent, but hearing you say you shot Orion with just a D5300 on a tripod makes me want to try it myself. I always assumed stacking without tracking was basically pointless but your results sound really good. The flat frames and dark frames thing is something I've been lazy about, I always skip them and then wonder why my stacked images look noisy. I'm gonna give that a shot with maybe 80 exposures of the Pleiades next clear night. Genuinely changed my mind about needing expensive gear for this.

hollyl256d ago

Wait, you shot Orion with a D5300 on a tripod and got details in the nebula? Like actual cloud details? lmao that's wild. I always figured you'd just get a faint smudge at best without tracking. 60 frames too, that's a lot of work. What ISO were you running? I've been stuck on using a star tracker for everything but this makes me want to bust out my old camera and just go for it. And you're telling me flat frames alone cleaned up the noise that much? I've been skipping those too lol maybe I need to stop being lazy.