Was super skeptical about stacking multiple astro photos instead of just taking one long exposure

For like 4 years I only did single long exposure shots of the night sky. Thought stacking was just extra work for no real gain, like those people who spend hours processing each image. Then I tried to shoot the Orion Nebula last winter and the core was always blown out white no matter what I did. Finally gave stacking a shot with DeepSkyStacker using like 20 short 30 second exposures. The detail in the nebula core was actually there, it wasn't just a white blob anymore. Felt kinda dumb for resisting it so long. Anyone else have a processing technique they avoided for years and then finally gave in?

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colemiller1mo ago

Haha oh man, I feel this so hard. I was the exact same way with noise reduction software - swore by my camera's built in long exposure noise reduction for years. Finally caved and tried something like DxO or whatever and realized my photos looked like they were taken through a muddy window before. I'm still mad at myself about it honestly.