Stacking 500 frames taught me why I was wrong about lucky imaging

I always thought lucky imaging was just for planetary shots, not deep sky stuff. Tried it on the Orion Nebula last month with my 8" dob and a cheap planetary cam. Took 500 frames at 30ms each, stacked the best 20% in AS!3. The detail in the trapezium was insane, way sharper than my usual 120 second exposures. Turns out the atmosphere ruins long subs more than I figured, short frames freeze the seeing. Now I'm redoing all my old targets this way. Has anyone else ditched long exposures for lucky imaging on DSOs, or am I late to this party?

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king.val13d ago

Same trick blew my mind on M42. Ditched subs over 60s ever since.

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