Calibration frames and temperature issue

[Daniel Krausz]

I'm a beginner so please bear with me... So I just started using ASTAP. The results are pretty amazing so far and a huge leap over Affinity Photo which I've been doing all of my stacking with.

I'm using a mirrorless camera: Canon EOS-R

The issue I'm having however is that ASTAP doesn't like my dark frame temperature variations and won't use them, I guess, unless they are close to exactly the same as the light frames. Problem is, it's almost always considerably colder by the time we get to taking our dark frames. Especially this time of the year. The other night for example I was out shooting IC 5070 and it went from 69° to about 50°F over the course of the session.

With longer exposure times, say 180s with an interval of 4s. It might take 2-3 hours to shoot 40-50 Darks. Temperature often does not stay stable over that long a period at night. Not sure what to do other than wait till it gets colder in general and the temp swings are narrower...?

Bonus noob question here... Why is the stacking button sometimes solid blue, blue outline or just all white.

My full list of astro gear:
Camera: Canon EOS R (stock)
Telescope: William Optics Z61 w/ Flat61A
EQ Mount: Star Adventurer GTi
Guiding: ZWO Mini Guide Scope / ASI-120mm Mini cam
Software: ASTAP, Lightroom Classic, Affinity Photo
ASAIR Plus - computing

[han.k]

if they are within 5vdegrees celsius, you will no notice. best is to set classify on temp off. note i'm mostly offline up to october

Han

[Grimstod]

MY advice is to build a library of darks. I set the camera out on the back porch plugged in and let it take darks all night during cloudy nights. This collects lot of darks at veriouse temperatures. So ASTAP has plenty to choose from.