Took me 3 nights to figure out my star trails were curving wrong, it was one dumb setting
Set up at a lake outside Flagstaff last month and my trails kept coming out like little hooks instead of smooth arcs. Turns out I had long exposure noise reduction turned on, which made the camera take a dark frame between every shot and messed up my stacking. What setting has eaten hours of your shooting time before you caught it?
A buddy of mine drove two hours to shoot the Milky Way over this old barn and came home with nothing but purple noise. He had auto white balance on the whole time, so every frame came out a slightly different color and the stacker just choked on it. He messed with curves and levels for a week before he figured it out. The funny part is he swears he checked his settings before he left the house. Now he shoots a test frame and actually looks at the info screen before it gets dark. Cost him one whole trip is all.