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Warning: star trails ruined my first Milky Way shot at Big Bend
Drove 6 hours to Big Bend last month with my new tracker, thought it would be foolproof. Turns out I forgot to polar align after setting up, and every 30 second exposure came out with tiny arcs. Everyone online swears by trackers, but honestly my untracked shots from 3 years ago look sharper. Anyone else skip the gizmo and just stack more frames instead?
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rowank6922d ago
Big Bend is dark enough that you can honestly skip the tracker and just stack 40 to 60 shorter frames at 15 seconds each. The key is keeping your shutter fast enough that the stars don't smear at your focal length, and you can find that number with the 500 rule. Then you stack way more subs in something like Sequator and the noise disappears on its own. Trackers help at long focal lengths, sure, but they also add a whole new way to mess up a shot. If polar alignment is off even a little, those tiny arcs creep in and you don't see them until you're home. Stick with untracked stacking if that's working for you, no shame in it.
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