Just caught a 6 month difference in my moon shots

I've been taking photos of the moon from my backyard in Portland since January. I pulled up my first attempt from February and compared it to one from last night. The early one was all fuzzy with no crater detail, but now I can actually see the edges of Mare Tranquillitatis clearly. Turns out learning how to stack images properly made all the difference. What was the one technique that changed your astro photos the most?

3 comments

3 Comments

sam_murphy392mo ago

Stacking was the game changer for me too. I was stubborn about it for months, thinking my single shots looked fine. Then I finally tried it and the difference was night and day. Suddenly I could see crater rims and shadows I didn't even know were there. Now I take like 100 frames every time and stack the best ones. It's tedious but it saves so much frustration later.

riley_schmidt2mo ago

Go easy on the frames though @sam_murphy39, stacking too many can blur things.

hollyc921mo ago

50 is the sweet spot. More than that and you’re just asking for a blurry mess.