Serious question, did stacking 87 frames of the Orion Nebula actually beat my single 4 minute shot?

Morgan Hayes · 2026-09-16T10:10:03.663289+00:00

Last weekend I drove out to a spot near Lake Berryessa to shoot Orion since it was finally clear. I took one 4 minute shot at ISO 1600 and then stacked 87 shorter frames in DeepSkyStacker just to see what would happen. The stacked version pulled out way more faint dust around the core than the single shot, and I honestly expected the opposite. I think my tracking is just worse than I thought on longer subs. Has anyone else found that a bunch of short frames beats one long one on a cheap mount?

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Serious question, did stacking 87 frames of the Orion Nebula actually beat my single 4 minute shot? | Astronomy Photos - Librear