Started stacking 30 second subs on a hunting trip near Flagstaff, my Orion Nebula shot finally popped

Ben Murray · 2026-09-30T09:35:05.819549+00:00

Three weeks back I dragged my little tracking mount out to a spot off Lake Mary Road near Flagstaff because the sky there is stupid dark. For two seasons I kept shooting single 2 minute frames and my stars were trailing just enough to bug me. So that night I swapped to 30 second subs and stacked 80 of them in free software the next morning at the motel. When the final image loaded I could actually see the trapezium stars sitting inside the nebula instead of one bright blob. My old laptop almost died during the stack but it was worth it. How many subs do you all usually grab before the noise finally backs off, or do you just push the exposure longer?

Librear

Loading…

Started stacking 30 second subs on a hunting trip near Flagstaff, my Orion Nebula shot finally popped | Astronomy Photos - Librear