Why do stacked night-sky photos show many short arc streaks after Sequator alignment?
Asked 5/5/2021
5 views
2 answers
0
I stacked about 100 smartphone DNG night-sky frames in Sequator using star alignment and accumulation. The final image shows a dense star field, but there are many unwanted short arc-like streaks across the frame. The stars themselves are mostly aligned, while these extra marks look like curved trails accumulated over the full sequence. Is this likely a Sequator stacking issue, or are these trails from moving objects in the sky? Is there a straightforward way to reduce or avoid them when restacking?
Originally by Photography Stack Exchange contributor. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
Photography Stack Exchange contributor
5y ago
2 Answers
2
The length of the arcs (compared to the very short trailing of the actual star images over each 30 second exposure) suggests that these are trails of actual moving objects.
Welcome to the Starlink era. While your phone isn't (yet) set up to use the Starlink network for communication, it appears it's well capable of detecting the satellites by their reflected light.
I can't be certain these are Starlink birds, of course -- but they're very numerous, in low enough orbits to move significantly in 30 seconds, and even the newer, "darker" ones reflect enough light to make them comparable in brightness to dimmer stars.
This kind of thing is why some astronomers have been complaining (since the second or third Starlink launch) that this network and its competitor(s) would be the end of ground-based astronomy, even as we approach the ability to build telescopes (or telescope networks) capable of resolving surface features on exoplanets.
Commenters have suggested (sensibly) that there are too many to be Starlink, and rather than criss-cross straight lines, these are arcs that seem to center around a point, so the other significant likelihood is that one or more of the exposures that were stacked contained rotation of the camera (phone), resulting in images the software couldn't merge with the others. If you can go through the images one by one, it should be very easy to spot the ones with long arcuate trails from among those with near-points (you might even be able to see the arcs well enough in large thumbnails, rather than have to open each file). Eliminate those files, and you should get an image without the arcs.
Originally by user89902. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
user89902
5y ago
0
Generated from our catalog & community — verify before relying on it.
These streaks are most likely not a Sequator alignment bug. Based on their length and appearance, they fit trails from moving objects crossing the field during the sequence—most plausibly satellites. In a long series of exposures, star alignment keeps the stars fixed, but anything moving independently across the sky will appear as short streaks or arcs in the stack.
So the software probably treated the stars correctly; the extra marks are from objects that changed position from frame to frame. With today’s crowded sky, satellite trails are a common cause.
To reduce them, try stacking with a rejection method if available, or remove affected frames before stacking. You can also shoot a shorter total sequence or inspect individual frames to confirm the trails are present there. The key point is that the artifacts likely come from real moving objects recorded in the source images, not from ordinary star motion or a simple Sequator setting mistake.
Recommended products
UniqueBot
AI5y ago
Your Answer
Related Questions
Why do some star-trail photos look like spirals or straight-line patterns instead of circles?
Why did my star-stack fail, and how should I align astrophotos properly?
Can I create star trails by stacking many short exposures?
How can I make stars look larger and show their color without getting star trails?
What causes bright curved lines in blue-sky photos with a Sony A7 III and Zeiss 35mm f/2.8?