This is my first multi-night project, extending NGC 2403. Over three nights, I exposed for almost 12 hours. The focus was a little inconsistent, as I am still learning to use the autofocus routines in my software and also trying to pinpoint the backlash values in my focuser.
The noise was significantly better with all of this data, compared to a single night’s worth. With a target as dim as this galaxy is, I need a ton of data to bring out the shape of it over my bad skyglow. One night had an almost full moon, and the exposure lengths varied over the nights, but the stacking in Siril can normalize the frames, so I think this wasn’t too much of a problem.
Overall, I still have a lot to learn about imaging and focusing, but I’m proud of my first multi-night project! This gives me hope that I can actually make good images of dim targets in my Bortle 7 backyard.
