First Cygnus

[JB80]

Hey all,

Finally managed to get something useable and thought I'd share my first go at the Cygnus region with the nifty-50 and 450D and Polarie.

It's my first run through processing and late last night it looks like I added the darks in the dark flats section of DSS and I did take some flats which I hope will be good but I haven't incorporated them into the stack yet. It seems to have come out OK, I think.

A few minor things are off, alignment slightly so as I used the sight hole and not polar scope but I'm much happier with this effort.

It's a stack of 54 minutes worth of 1:30min exposures at ISO 800 f/4.

Like I said it's a work in progress so any tips and other things I can try in processing will be greatly appreciated.

[JB80]

Here is the same lot but with flats added, it's a bit more subtle too.

Not sure how well the flats worked as there seems to be an increase in gradient to the left hand bottom of the pic plus a bit of jpeg compression.

[Superdavo]

Nice shot!

[JamesF]

Odd how the flats seem to have affected the image, but it's very nice nonetheless. The sheer density of stars is amazing.

James

[Welrod50]

Slight contrast boost in photoshop or similar will benefit the second image, which I actually quite like nonetheless. Lovely image! Amazing just what's up there. From my back garden you can see the major stars, but nothing anywhere near this.

[JB80]

Thanks all.

Odd how the flats seem to have affected the image, but it's very nice nonetheless. The sheer density of stars is amazing.

I don't think they were the best of flats to be honest, I used the fridge door as it was too late at night to be seriously rummaging about the house.

But yeah the amount that is up in that region is staggering, I would never of got results like this before we moved. I'm loving the new sky down here.

Slight contrast boost in photoshop or similar will benefit the second image, which I actually quite like nonetheless. Lovely image! Amazing just what's up there. From my back garden you can see the major stars, but nothing anywhere near this.

I might try that again, this morning when I boosted contrast it looked a bit overcooked, it's hard to tell after a couple of hours staring at the same image. I'll revisit it with fresh eyes.

Here I can just see the Milky Way which is very lucky, I'm looking forward to getting the scope up there and bagging some targets visually now.

[kirkster501]

Very nice! I like it very much.

[Adamar98]

Lovely image! Cracking little lens! Only thing I would say is pull the framing over to the right a little and you'll also get the veil nebula in.

[JB80]

Cheers all.

Adam, I agree with that. I wasn't particularly framing the image because it was the first time I have tried it from that spot and was more concerned with avoiding the roof at the time.

Next time though I'll do better.

[foundaplanet]

Nice one. Good to hear you have a better sky.

[Adamar98]

I know what you mean! It's not uncommon to hear the sound of branches coming down in the early hours of the morning from my garden. Anything for a better image or a longer sub.

[JB80]

Not sure I could get away with chopping back the landlords olive trees, might get told off for that one.

I went back and boosted contrast with fresh eyes as mentioned above and also took a bit of the blue and yellow out. Definitely makes a difference when you have them side by side.

Also might have another go at the area tonight but properly aligned so the stars a round.