Warning: I was stacking my astro photos WRONG for a year

I used to just dump all my light frames into DeepSkyStacker with default settings and call it a day, getting muddy results every time. Then I watched a video where a guy showed how I needed to first calibrate with darks, flats, and bias frames taken at the exact same temperature as my lights, seriously the difference was night and day. How many of you actually check those calibration frame temps before stacking?

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ben8273mo ago

Oh man, I was that guy too for like six months. I just threw everything into DSS and thought "well, that's as good as it gets." Then I found out my darks were taken at 60 degrees and my lights at 40 and wondered why everything looked like garbage. Now I'm that weirdo with a thermometer next to my camera, taking calibration frames at 2am like some kind of space nerd. Your mileage may vary, but honestly I think half the battle is just not being lazy about the boring stuff.

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paige_west3mo ago

lol @ben827 you're so right about the boring stuff being half the battle! I spent months wondering why my images looked like noise soup until I finally caved and bought a temperature logger for my camera. Now I'm that person with a spreadsheet tracking everything like it's a science experiment.

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