Used to spend 3 nights stacking subs on M42, now I'm done in 45 minutes and honestly it bugs me

Reese Thompson · 2026-10-27T18:40:05.095948+00:00

Back in 2019 I was shooting Orion from my driveway in Tempe with a beat up DSLR, and every clear night meant 3 or 4 hours of 90 second subs, then another 2 hours fighting DeepSkyStacker on a laptop that sounded like a hair dryer. Now I run 60 second subs with a little cooled camera and the rig does auto stacking, so the whole thing wraps up before my coffee goes cold. It's better, I know it's better, but I caught myself missing the part where I'd sit out there at 2am watching the frames pop up one by one. Last Tuesday I grabbed maybe 40 minutes total on the Rosette and it felt like cheating. The shots are cleaner than anything I got in 2019, but I barely remember taking them. Does anyone else feel like the easy setup took some of the fun out of it, or am I just being nostalgic?

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Used to spend 3 nights stacking subs on M42, now I'm done in 45 minutes and honestly it bugs me | Astronomy Photos - Babble Community