Basic questions re. DeepSkyStacker

[Macavity]

With apologies for not RTFM (reading the friendly manual!) properly...

But I was messing about with my Watec Cam the other evening, and some evil influence persuaded me to commit some DVI files to disk... and *try* to process them. Hardly an ideal(!) DSO-imaging setup - MAK150 (with homebrew reducer to F6?) on an Ioptron (Alt-Az) mount! But semi-random processing, via DeepSkyStacker, actually yielded something... (OK, don't laugh, but M65):

But it set me wondering:

Does DSS *really* need all the file types? Is the AI (artificial intelligence) bound to matching image types by ISO speed? It SEEMS to have processed a few picture and dark files (split via VirtualDub), to some effect. Does it really need all these "flats", "offset/bias", and "dark flats" as well? I sense (wishful thinking?) it begins to remove field rotation, hot pixels (partly), with just "darks"?

In a nutshell d'ya think DSS *can* be used with a random (non-DSLR) cameras and an Alt-Azimuth mount to achieve anything worthwhile? I'm not after HST-type images, merely a (quick video) record of my progress in seeing Messier Objects!

[Macavity]

Found some useful stuff here:

Link to Post by dweebostar

Re. Colour processing, but a great start? For which, thanks...