Deep sky stacker star count

[gonzostar]

Hi

Any ideas please?

When i check  at the light frames and do a star count on them DSS tells me it can see say 20 stars. Then i add the darks, flats and bias frames. All of a sudden this then gets reduced to say 4 - 6 stars? Any suggestions where i am going wrong? 

Should i be using average or sigma clipping in DSS settings?  

Oh yes i am also going unguided at moment with 2 mins lights

Thanks for reading

 

Dean

[Bizibilder]

You need to move the star threshold slider to a setting where DSS "sees" a reasonable number of stars.  do that with all your lights, darks and flats loaded.

[gonzostar]

I stacked 1 sub with lights, darks, bias and yet i counted 30, DSS  only 10. the rest os subs 6 or less  I counted a number of  stars on the camera image to

The threshold is at 2%

[gonzostar]

Maybe also a focus issue? I have just tried M57 which is still faily low down and DSS  managed to count 150+ stars. I dont know whats going on! 

[dph1nm]

Unguided at 2 mins and very few DSS stars might suggest a tracking issue. DSS will not detect trailed or bloated stars very well. You only need 8 stars (in common) to stack by the way.

NigelM

[gonzostar]

hanks for this, bloated do you mean out of focus? I guess i need one of those masks! Yet on the same evening DSS managed to capture 150+ stars with light frames from M57.

Also i have read about people adjusting the counter weight is this a common procedure, will this help with tracking? Also if the DSO is south which direction do you adjust?

Sorry for all the qustions

 

Dean