I'm a complete beginner in astrophotography but I've been doing some research into it because it seems like a really cool hobby! There's something I haven't seen explained anywhere yet about the image collection process, in the scenario where a fixed mount (not tracking) is in use and many exposures are taken to be stacked (and other processing steps, of course). If I were to center my target in the camera field of view and begin taking exposures, how do I know WHEN to stop to adjust the camera, to re-center the image, before taking more exposures? I am assuming that the stacking software is lining up the individual images in order to combine them, but is it able to work with images where a small target is located in a wide range of places in the camera frame, or must I re-center the target area more frequently in the camera frame so that there is not much difference between individual images? Thanks for any input!
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Hello,
You should re-center your target as often as possible. The stacking software will align and stack your images without any issue, but your final result, your "Master" file, will have noticeable lines on each edge which you will need to crop out in order to remove.
The farther you let your target move from your frame, the tighter the lines will show on the stacked file.