Stacking 400 photos of the moon took me 2 nights because of a rotation mistake

I finally got my DSLR pointed right at the moon last week and shot over 400 frames, but the stacked result came out blurry. Turns out I forgot to account for the moon's rotation between shots, so I had to regroup and use a different alignment setting in the software, which took another whole evening. Has anyone else spent way too long on a moon mosaic only to realize the issue was something basic like that?

2 comments

2 Comments

rosep871mo ago

That rotation thing got me too. First mosaic came out smeared. Now I always check the lunar libration before I start shooting. Takes two minutes. Saves a whole night of wasted frames. Also helps to shoot in short bursts. Maybe 30 frames, then re-check the alignment. Less data to scrap if the software messes up. That fix alone cut my processing time in half.

james_butler1mo ago

Honestly think you're overthinking this one. The rotation thing barely matters unless you're shooting for hours or filling out a huge mosaic. I just crank out 400 shots in like 20 minutes, stack them, and the blur is usually my cheap lens breathing in the cold anyway. Maybe the real issue is chasing perfection when the moon looks fine enough after a quick stack.