That is roughly what I was suggesting.The idea came to me when I remembered the image of Halley’s comet which was released shortly before the comet reached aphelion. The stars were subtracted and what remained stacked on the motion of the comet. IIRC, C1/Halley was 29th magnitude at the time.
The idea is testable using images of a star field which is easily measurable before removing all but one of the stars. See whether the before and after measurements are comparable. Repeat with different stars removed and with different fields.
It’s a shame I’ve so little spare bandwidth or I would try it myself with some of my planetary satellite images — of Amalthea, say.
Added in edit: Ah, my earlier response to Nick contained that idea with the suggestion that DAOPHOT’s computed background images be stacked and measured. I know it was posted because I subsequently edited it. Hmmm….
Second edit: Callum rescued it from spam purgatory and it now appears above. Thank Callum.
