Chuleton08

Thanks Everyone btw, It was all very helpful 

Hi guys, 

Sorry for not responding. Sorry if I was not being clear, but I was struggling to edit the photos in Gimp, and turn them into a nice photo. I had a go my self, and then got someone else to try, and they did a pretty good job.

This is my attempt:

This is someones else go:

Hope Thats What You Wanted.

Here are the three:

DSS:

Siril With Flats:

Siril Without Flats:

I can try, But they are just stacked and dont look good. Give me a Sec.

Sorry, I Didn't Think of that 😅

MilkyWayDSS.TIF SirilWithFlats.fit SirilWithoutFlats.fit

Hello Everyone!

I had my second semi successful night of taking photos, and I took 26 photos of 30 sec exposures on my Canon 400d, with a 18-200mm lens @ 50mm. It was at ISO 800, and at f/5. I think I have stacked the photos correctly, and tried Siril and DSS for the stacking. However, the Siril one does not look right. If anyone can have a go, or point me towards somewhere where I can learn, that would be great.

If you have any questions that might help, Please ask.

Stacked Images:

Stacking With DSS

Stacking With Old Flat Frames In Siril

Stacking Without Flat Frames In Siril

 Yea, someone else recommended me to take photos with a shorter focal length, so im going to see how the tracker works with that. Thanks.

Hi, thanks for the reply,

On reddit, I found out I was properly polar aligned, and it was more of a mechanical issue instead.

Thanks for all of this. I will definitely try out some of these ideas!

Thanks Viaiv for the reply,

I have attached an image to here of a 30 sec exposure with the tracking on.

Hello Everyone,

I've just started my Astrophotography journey, and I've decided to build a DIY barn tracker which I 3D printed. I can't seem to get even a 30 second long exposure without star trails. The big wheel spins once every minute, which is correct, and I'm pretty sure its polar aligned, as when I put my phone with Polaris in Stellarium, it aligns up with everything. Maybe Its not orientated the right way or something. I have attached a photo of the set up, with north being straight on, and east being where the arm is pointing to. I am located near Chichester in the UK if that helps.

If you need more details, please ask and I will try my best to respond.

Thanks in Advance!

Here is the Tracker Set up

https://imgur.com/a/x7LWrA3

I just had all the stuff laying around from a long time, so I didn't buy anything specifically, except some memory and a remote timer. 

Thanks 900SL and Elp for all the info!

I will have a look see if I could make a diy tracker or get a different lens.

Btw, here is someone's attempt at editing the same stacked image I had

Thanks for everything everyone !!!

silly me 😅

Just now, TiffsAndAstro said:

Btw m31 gets higher in the sky over the next month or two, so you're fighting a lot more horrible atmosphere to image.

I'm new, and desperate to image m31 with my new gear, but it's still too low for me right now.

Having said that, it's probably ideal to practice and get data to practice with

Isn't the higher it is the less atmosphere there is, and the lower it is, the more atmosphere? Its always good to practice.

7 minutes ago, Elp said:

Might be your registration algorithm is wrong, needs to be deep sky global if I remember correctly, you can look at your images if you've put the lights into a sequence via the file list button (bottom right) and you can down arrow key through them all whilst in histogram preview to see if the stars are round, which they need to be, some ovality will also register. Whilst you're in the file list make sure the registration image is good otherwise they won't register, by default the first image is the master registration file, you can simply scroll down to another file you like the look of and check the use as register check box at the top of the dialogue box.

Thanks I will have a look

7 minutes ago, Elp said:

Thanks, it's a continual learning process, the first one is when I just bought my azgti and was still using it in altaz mode, the second by then I was using the mount autoguided in EQ mode so could image per sub for longer.

Do some tests, I think at 200mm you'll struggle to go past what you're already doing without star elongation. When I was using a 50mm last I don't think I could even do 10s on a fixed mount. You really need a star tracker or tracking mount for deep sky work.

Darker skies help tremendously, but from memory when it's dark ATM (remember it's not astronomical dark at present, have to wait until September or later for that to come back if in UK), Andromeda is quite low near 10 degrees or so, so you're imaging through a lot of atmosphere which will also cause your images to blur more. It's not ideal to image at present. With your setup Id try open star clusters because stars are bright.

I will hopefully be able to take my camera in August to the south of Spain, and in the middle of nowhere with little to none light pollution. Hopefully by then, I would have learnt how to take the photos

1 minute ago, TiffsAndAstro said:

Try it and see. Take a 5 sec at a high iso then zoom in look for star trails/elongated stars. If none use 5 sec. If you do see trails etc drop to 4 sec, and look again.

I'm very new to this but I think I saw trails at 50mm crop frame at about 5 seconds or more. You're at 200mm so if you don't see trails at 2 sec I say you're doing well I think.

I think iso800 might be best when taking your subs

That's a good idea. I will hopefully do some testing 

Got this at the end when using Siril. Does this mean my photos were bad to begin with? 

Wow, those photos look amazing!

I don't have a sky tracker, do you think I can get away with something like a 8-9 sec exposure time? Also so now is not a good time to be taking photos as its too low? Or could i just go somewhere darker than my back garden and still get a decent photo?

This is what I got. What does this mean then? I still want to try from scratch with the raw files, and process it with Siril though, I think there will be better results right?

Thanks Elp for the reply,

This is my first time doing astrophotography, so I'm still learning. I'm currently trying stacking again with Siril, hoping that the PP is going to be a bit better. Do you think its worth sacrificing the 2sec exposure time for something a little longer? If so what, and why.

Thanks!

Hi Simon,

Thanks for replying. I used deep sky stacker, and I was following all the steps in the video: 

I think this is the file you are looking for:

m31.tif