Stacking 400 frames beat using that expensive tracker, fight me

I dropped $800 on a star tracker last spring, but after a cloudy week in Flagstaff I forced myself to stack 400 unguided 1-second frames of Orion and the detail blew away every single tracked shot I took, so has anyone else found that heavy stacking makes the gear pointless?

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christopher40211d ago

The part about "blew away every single tracked shot" hit home for me. It's the same thing I see with my buddy who spends hours dialing in his espresso machine while I just use a cheap French press, and honestly mine tastes just as good most mornings. We all love buying the fancy tool because it feels like we're doing something serious, but the real magic is usually just doing the boring work over and over. Stacking 400 frames is basically free persistence, and that beats any gadget you can buy. I've noticed this pattern everywhere, from fishing lures to power tools, people pay for shortcuts that don't actually beat showing up and putting in the reps. So yeah, your tracker is probably a nice paperweight now, but the real lesson is that most expensive gear just makes you feel better about taking the long way around.

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