Tried to stack photos of the Milky Way and ruined an hour of data with a bad calibration frame

I was out at Cherry Springs last month shooting 75 light frames of the core but forgot to take flats in the field and spent the whole drive home kicking myself because no amount of post processing could fix that dust donut right over the center of the galaxy, has anyone else had a whole session trashed by something stupid like forgetting darks?

3 comments

3 Comments

the_jamie14d ago

Broke my mount's dovetail plate this way, still not over it lol.

gavin46914d ago

Did you try using a bit of heat before you torqued it down? I had the same thing happen on my CGEM and a quick hit with a hair dryer loosened things up just enough. Since then I always warm the plate a little before tightening and haven't cracked one since.

-1

charles64014d ago

Hold up, are we REALLY calling a whole session "ruined" over a dust donut and no flats? I've got plenty of shots with dust motes or weird gradients that I cleaned up fine with a clone stamp and some careful curves adjustments. It's not gonna win Astrobin's photo of the week but it's not like the data is completely useless. I swear everyone online acts like if you don't have 100% perfect calibration frames then your entire night is a total loss. Maybe I just don't care enough but I'd rather have a picture with a tiny flaw than zero picture at all. Plus I've seen plenty of folks spend more time freaking out about their gear than just taking the damn picture.