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Looking for feedback and advice re: initial attempts at Astrophotography

Started May 12, 2021 | Photos thread
Andy01 Veteran Member • Posts: 5,188
Re: Sequator
1

Advi wrote:

Use sequator. It is a very useful freeware (no ads) software.

It allows you to stack multiple shots, compensating the movement of the stars.

Only if you get the basics right and use an appropriate shutter speed. It doesn't compensate for star movement at all, but if you take a bunch of shorter exposure shots that don't show trailing, you can stack them together to reduce noise.

Take a lot of pictures, and the last photo take with caps on (completely dark). This will be your noise photo.

Most modern cameras have smarts that mostly negates the need for darks (at least according to Roger Clark).

You can input CR3 files, that helps a lot in details.

Good point - shooting in RAW for astro is very important if you want to stretch the exposure.

So, at the end, your final picture will be 10min or 15 min exposure picture.

I am not sure that this is true really. The astro gurus (I am not one) do speak of a "combined" exposure time after stacking, but AFAIK it is more of a reference to noise reduction due to stacking multiple shots rather than a true extended exposure time.

I think with DSS (another stacking programme) there is a reference to a noise reduction of the square root of the number of shots stacked - for example, 4 shots gives 1/2 the noise, 9 shots gives 1/3 the noise, 25 shots gives 1/5 the noise etc.

Sequator can be found here: https://www.softpedia.com/get/Multimedia/Graphic/Graphic-Others/Sequator.shtml

Colin

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