tessa394•18d agoMost Upvoted

Tried stacking 200+ images of Jupiter with free software... got a blurry mess

Everyone always says deep sky stacker is the way to go for planetary shots, but I tried it on 240 frames from my 8 inch dob and it turned out worse than a single raw frame. The software kept misaligning the bands and smearing all the detail into a fuzzy blob. I learned that free stacking tools are great for faint fuzzies but you really need something like registax for planets. Has anyone else had better luck with a different free option for Jupiter?

2 comments

2 Comments

maxmurphy18d ago

Honestly 240 frames on an 8 inch dob sounds like way too many for Jupiter.

amy_foster5618d ago

Hmm, that's interesting. What makes you say 240 is too many? Genuinely curious not trying to be argumentative. In my experience the sweet spot on my 8 inch dob has been closer to 150-180 for Jupiter, but I've heard people swear by 300+ when the seeing is really good. Just wondering if you've tried stacking less frames and compared the results side by side, or if you're basing that on something else like processing software limitations. Your mileage may vary of course, but I always figure more data gives you more room to pick the sharpest frames.