Stacking Multiple Stacks?

[poolemarkw]

Does stacking multiple stacks yield the same result as creating one stack of the total number of frames? For example, suppose that I create a live stack of 100 frames tonight and save as a 16-bit FITS file one evening, then create a live stack of 200 frames of the same image on another night. If I then used Deep Sky Stacker to stack the two stacks into one stack, is the resulting final stack the same result as one 300-frame stack?

What I'm wanting to do is to get data over multiple nights but avoid having to save all of the individual frames and stack the large group later.

Thanks,

Mark

[turfpit]

Mark

See viewtopic.php?t=561

Dave

[poolemarkw]

Hi Dave, I don't believe that the link that you referred me to answers the question.

thanks,

Mark

[admin]

Hi,

If all your stacks are the same length then the answer is yes. If your stacks are different lengths then I suspect it may be hard to persuade deep sky stacker to give additional weight to the longer stacks in the way that it should, which will mean that some of the additional detail that should be visible in the longer sub stacks won't be given the weight it deserves in the final image.

Cheers, Robin

[poolemarkw]

Excellent, thanks Robin!

Mark