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When is enough, enough?


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All astrophotographers ask themselves the same question. "Have I taken enough data". We hear about diminishing returns on data aquired, but what is your criteria for saying enough is enough? There are formulas out there, but with so many different combinations of setups, I don't see how they can be applied.

I tend to evalute background noise in determining whether I have enough data or not. My laptop controlling the mount is on my local network, so stacking as I'm imaging is quite easy. I don't live stack, but will start a quick stack after 30-5 minute frames in Pixinsight, then every subsequent 10 frames, comparing them as I go along. Once I see no improvement in signal, or noise, I stop.

Personally, I have been guilty of taking too many frames, especially in Ha, but prefer to be on the safe side, and have too many than not enough. How do members evaluate when they have enough data? Time limits, noise evaluation, or if you live in the UK, grab what you can, when you can? ?

 

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You can never have enough data to play with. I am currently using a modified Canon T3I and I have found, I need more subs than I  do with a CCD camera.

With me. I would like to take as many as possible. But it all depends on sky quality and personal stamina.

I take 180 second exposures at typically 800iso. So I try and aim for two hours of data.

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I never gather enough data.  I become impatient, or the target moves out of my rather small patch of sky.

I am getting better, though.  Two years ago, anything more than two hours was rare for me.  Now the average seems to be about 5 hours.

Part of the change is an improvement in efficiency.  If something goes wrong, I seem to be able to get going again much more quickly.  I'm also nailing focus in a fraction of the time that it used to take, and this is making a huge difference.

Accurate, and easy to use, platesolving is also making a big difference.

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Since getting ASA Sequence to play nicely I've been able get a lot more data than before, as I can leave it running all night, only closing up in the morning. This assumes that no rain is forecast before I surface.

I've now been able to regularly integrate 20+ hours on a single target. On occasion I will schedule more than one target per night of one is getting too low while it's still dark.

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You'll have a job. it's part of the software that is supplied by ASA with their DDM mounts. The cheapest new mount is the DDM100, currently on pre-order at £24k. DDM owners hang on to theirs like grim death.

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