Old star trail photos got me thinking about my stacking settings

I dug up some shots from 2019, a night out near Flagstaff with a cheap star tracker, and they looked way sharper than anything I've made since. Turns out I had been dithering off this whole time, the new mounts do it automatically but I never bothered checking that box on my gear. Anyone else realize a basic setting was the difference between crisp and blurry, and how long did it take you to notice?

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susansingh29d ago

Crisp and blurry" might be a stretch. If the difference was that huge, maybe you changed more than just dithering between then and now. Could be focus, or your polar alignment drifted, or even just better seeing that night. Dithering helps with noise patterns in the background, but it doesn't usually turn a blurry star into a sharp one. I'd compare the raw subs side by side before blaming one setting.

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