Photo stacking

[slat]

If you are using a tracker for astrophotography is it better to take 30 second to1 minute exposures or like 2 to 3 minute exposures? I know you would need more 1 minute vs 3 minute to stack.
My thought is shorter exposures would give you less chance for noise or hot pixels?

 

[SquarePeg]

I’m very new to using a tracker but I did some experimenting a few weeks ago. The best shots I got were 2 minutes long. 4 minutes was too long. 30s didn’t yield much more than my usual non tracked 20s although I haven’t stacked those yet. I think a lot will depend on how dark the skies are and your sensor/lens combo. You need to try different approaches and see what works best with your equipment.

Same as with non tracked photos. I know for me, my camera gets the most color in the core if I shoot at 3200 ISO for 20s at f2.8. Better than a stack of 10000 ISO photos at 10s to reduce noise and get sharper stars but the color will not be there which is what I’m looking for.