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Spent 5 hours stacking 40 subs at f/7 and got star trails because of one dumb setting
Was out at a dark site near Flagstaff chasing the Orion Nebula with a cheap star tracker, and I set my camera to 3 minute exposures because that's what some tutorial said. Turns out my tracker's polar alignment was off by just a hair, so all 40 lights had tiny streaks and I had to throw every single one out. How do you all handle aligning yours in the dark without losing your mind?
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janar1616d ago
Had a buddy who did almost the exact same thing last winter, drove two hours to a dark spot and came home with 60 frames of nothing but little worms. He finally fixed it by doing his polar alignment while it was still light out, using a phone app to get Polaris close, then fine tuning with the tracker's scope before it got fully dark. The trick he swears by now is checking alignment every 20 minutes or so with a quick test shot, because the ground can shift a bit as it cools or if you bump the tripod. He also dropped down to 90 second subs when he's not sure, since shorter shots hide small drift way better. It stinks losing a whole night, but nailing the alignment routine before you start shooting saves you from doing it all over again.
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