Nikon D5100 Settings for AP

[acatalano]

I've been using Allan Hall's excellent book on long exposure AP as my guide in getting into the hobby. He advises setting up a DSLR to NOT use in-camera noise reduction. When I began I did have these settings turned on and each photo was followed by about an equal time after the event in what I assumed was noise reduction. However now that I'm taking the long exposures permitted by my OAG and PH2 Guiding, I've come to realize that a 4 minute exposure is still followed by 4 minutes of grinding away! So I'm wondering if I have missed some setting in the D5100 or is this normal? I am using BYN V 2.1.1 RC3 together with ASTAP to platesolve. I also use Cartes du Ciel as my planetarium program.

[admin]

Welcome to the hobby

Allan Hall's is correct, in-camera noise reduction is not useful, a dark library is much more efficient.

Look like you still have in-camera noise reduction enabled.  That is the only reason for the same about of wait time between exposures.  Make sure you go through all the camera menus, some models have 2 settings.

Regards,

[s3igell]

What do you have setup for Dithering??  If it is setup to occur after each Image, this could well be your "4 minutes of grinding" as it performs the Dither and then waits for the Guiding Track to Settle to your configured Settings.

[acatalano]

I'm embarrassed to report that this was user error. I was absolutely certain I had disabled in-camera NR....but I hadn't, or turned the NR back on for some reason. UGH! Too many balls in the air!