Stacking vs. Tracking Summary (Patreon)

I've add a second page update to the comparison I did on July 8th. This lists the PROS and CONS of both methods.

Although tracking wins out in overall quality, stacking still has a lot of things going for it, because it is so simple to use and with no investment in equipment.

Tracking also requires you to do a new polar alignment each time you chose a new tripod location. Even if you do the more simple laser alignment, this can still take five to ten minutes. Then, there's the problem of accuracy: laser alignment is not as accurate as optical alignment (as you've learn from my previous updates).

In the above image, I exposed it three different ways: 1. Stacking. 2. One long tracking exposure. 3. Several shorter tracked exposures that I then stacked together for the final image. You'll may be surprised to learn that the results of #3 is almost identical to #2.

This can be a very handy method, when you're in windy conditions, because in stacking, you can usually throw away some of your blurred stack exposures (due to wind vibration) and still get a sequence that the software will stack. If that happens with a long tracking exposure, you've got to start over again. Stacking several short tracked exposures vs. one long tracked exposure can also be helpful in alignment accuracy issues. You can do a "quick and dirty" laser alignment that will still have pinpoint star at an exposure time of 30 or 60 seconds, whereas it may take a more accurate optical alignment in order to be able to track for a four or five minutes exposure.

PDF: Be sure to download (below) and view my latest Version 2.0 eBook update about my stacking and tracking summary.

NOTE: My patrons can expect to see many more posts over the next few months, as I continue to "serialize" updates to my original, version 1.1 "Milky Way NightScapes" eBook. These advance updates will become available exclusively to my patrons, page-by-page, until my new version 2.0 eBook is completed and published sometime in late 2023.

All "Milky Way NightScapes" eBook Version 2.0 updates are protected by copyright: © Royce Bair 2023