Tried stacking 20 photos of the moon and got a blurry mess

I used my phone with a telescope adapter to shoot the moon last night and stacked 20 frames in Registax. Instead of a sharp image I got this weird ghosting effect around the edges. Did I use too many frames or is my alignment method just bad?

3 comments

3 Comments

charlescraig3d agoMost Upvoted

You got ghosting because your phone shifted slightly between shots. 20 frames isn't too many, it's just that phone adapters aren't rigid enough. Get a proper planetary camera and a barlow lens if you want real results.

avery2193d ago

Is it just me or does this apply to like, everything we try to do on the cheap? You buy a budget phone mount for your telescope and get blurry pictures, you get a cheap drill bit and it snaps in half, or you try to patch drywall with the wrong compound and it crumbles. Everyone wants to save a few bucks upfront, but then you end up spending twice as much time and money fixing the mess. A proper planetary camera is more expensive, but so is a halfway decent drill. Sometimes the real savings is just buying the right tool the first time.

-1

stone.lisa3d ago

Phone adapters are just not great for this kind of thing in my experience. That shifting between frames is a real problem, and even a tiny movement turns into a ghostly mess. Honestly 20 frames is actually pretty low for moon shots, I usually see people doing 50-100 or more. The real issue is probably more about the mount and phone not staying put. Your mileage may vary but a sturdier setup would help way more than changing the frame count.