https://akastroid.com/ Plain-English guides to stacking, calibration, colour and planetary imaging. en https://akastroid.com/blog/drizzle-and-undersampling https://akastroid.com/blog/drizzle-and-undersampling Drizzle recovers real resolution from undersampled data — and does nothing at all for the oversampled kind. How to tell which you have before turning it on. Fri, 25 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMT drizzle intermediate sampling stacking resolution https://akastroid.com/blog/star-reduction-and-starless-images https://akastroid.com/blog/star-reduction-and-starless-images Separating stars from nebulosity lets you stretch each on its own terms. Why a rich star field fights your target, when to reduce and when to leave well alone. Wed, 23 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMT starless processing intermediate stretching narrowband https://akastroid.com/blog/dithering-and-walking-noise https://akastroid.com/blog/dithering-and-walking-noise Diagonal streaks through your background that get worse the more frames you add. Where walking noise comes from, why calibration will not remove it, and the setting that prevents it. Mon, 21 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMT dithering intermediate stacking signal to noise troubleshooting https://akastroid.com/blog/narrowband-filters-explained https://akastroid.com/blog/narrowband-filters-explained Dual-band, tri-band, 7nm versus 3nm, and why the Hubble palette makes hydrogen green before anyone touches it. The decisions behind a narrowband image, in order. Fri, 18 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMT narrowband filters intermediate colour light pollution https://akastroid.com/blog/photographing-the-sun https://akastroid.com/blog/photographing-the-sun The only target that can blind you and destroy your camera in the same second. What actually makes a solar filter safe, and how white light and hydrogen-alpha differ in what they show. Wed, 16 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMT solar safety intermediate lucky imaging filters https://akastroid.com/blog/milky-way-without-a-star-tracker https://akastroid.com/blog/milky-way-without-a-star-tracker A camera, a wide lens and a tripod is enough. The 500 rule that everyone repeats will let you down on a modern sensor — here's what to use instead, and how stacking a landscape differs from stacking a nebula. Sun, 13 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMT nightscape beginner milky way getting started stacking https://akastroid.com/blog/what-to-image-from-a-light-polluted-sky https://akastroid.com/blog/what-to-image-from-a-light-polluted-sky More than the internet suggests, and less than the marketing does. A realistic target list by sky brightness, and why some objects barely care about light pollution at all. Fri, 11 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMT light pollution beginner planning targets gradient https://akastroid.com/blog/photographing-the-moon https://akastroid.com/blog/photographing-the-moon A single shot of Jupiter will always look soft, and it is not your telescope's fault. Lucky imaging takes thousands of frames and keeps the few the atmosphere left alone. Wed, 09 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMT planetary moon beginner lucky imaging stacking https://akastroid.com/blog/reading-frame-quality-scores https://akastroid.com/blog/reading-frame-quality-scores Culling subs by eye is slow and wrong. Here's what actually gets measured on a frame, what each number means, and why a score is only meaningful relative to the rest of the session. Sun, 06 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMT rejection beginner stacking troubleshooting workflow https://akastroid.com/blog/how-long-should-subs-be https://akastroid.com/blog/how-long-should-subs-be The honest answer depends on your sky, not your camera. Here's the measurement that settles it in one night, and why the usual advice to go as long as possible is wrong under a light-polluted sky. Fri, 04 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMT exposure beginner signal to noise stacking light pollution https://akastroid.com/blog/why-are-my-stars-trailing https://akastroid.com/blog/why-are-my-stars-trailing Trailed stars have six common causes and the fixes have nothing to do with each other. The direction and position of the streaks tells you which one you have. Wed, 02 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMT troubleshooting beginner tracking stars rejection https://akastroid.com/blog/deconvolution-explained https://akastroid.com/blog/deconvolution-explained What deconvolution actually does, why it's the biggest quality lever in deep-sky processing, and the three cases where running it makes your image worse. Wed, 17 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT deconvolution sharpening processing advanced psf https://akastroid.com/blog/removing-light-pollution-gradients https://akastroid.com/blog/removing-light-pollution-gradients Background extraction is the step most likely to damage an image while appearing to improve it. Here's what goes wrong, and the one rule that prevents it. Wed, 03 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT light pollution gradient background extraction troubleshooting processing https://akastroid.com/blog/how-many-frames-do-you-need https://akastroid.com/blog/how-many-frames-do-you-need The honest arithmetic behind stacking: why 200 frames isn't twice as good as 100, when adding time stops helping, and how to tell which limit you've actually hit. Wed, 20 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT stacking signal to noise beginner planning exposure https://akastroid.com/blog/what-akastroid-replaces https://akastroid.com/blog/what-akastroid-replaces A straight comparison against PixInsight, Siril, PIPP, AutoStakkert and RegiStax: what you save in time and money, and the specific cases where you still want the other tools. Wed, 06 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT comparison pixinsight siril autostakkert workflow cost https://akastroid.com/blog/first-image-walkthrough https://akastroid.com/blog/first-image-walkthrough From a folder of frames to a finished photograph, with an explanation of what happens at every stage and which of the automatic decisions are worth overriding. Wed, 22 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT getting started workflow beginner tutorial stacking https://akastroid.com/blog/why-is-my-nebula-red https://akastroid.com/blog/why-is-my-nebula-red A red-brown cast across the whole frame is one of the most common results in amateur astrophotography, and it is almost always the same three causes. Here's how to tell them apart. Wed, 08 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT colour light pollution gradient white balance troubleshooting https://akastroid.com/blog/how-stacking-works https://akastroid.com/blog/how-stacking-works Stacking is not averaging pictures together. It's a signal-to-noise argument with specific failure modes — here's what's happening, and when adding frames stops helping. Thu, 19 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT stacking beginner signal to noise rejection theory https://akastroid.com/blog/seestar-fits-guide https://akastroid.com/blog/seestar-fits-guide The Seestar's live stack is good. Its raw FITS subs are better. Here's what's actually in those files, and how to get a noticeably stronger image out of them. Wed, 04 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT seestar smart telescope fits stacking zwo https://akastroid.com/blog/what-are-darks-flats-bias https://akastroid.com/blog/what-are-darks-flats-bias A plain explanation of calibration frames — what each one removes, how many you need, and when shooting them is a waste of a clear night. Wed, 18 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT calibration darks flats beginner stacking