dark knight

Welcome to the lounge !!

Wow thanks guys, they both look really great, at least I can now see what's possible with the data I got.  I only use photoshop and maybe I'm too aggressive with the curves and should do lots of smaller stages. I really need to relearn my workflow!!!

ok, I finally sorted out my Drop Box account so if anyone is interested in having a play with the stacked image heres the link to the tiff  https://www.dropbox.com/s/44egikksfkr4cck/m42 dss stack.tif?dl=0   and once again many thanks

Hi all, just want to know which site folks are using to host their tiff files on. I'd like to find one preferably free where i can put my stack of tiffs so members can download and hopefully help me with any processing issues. As always many thanks in advance

You can check if ninas plate solve is synced to your mount by looking at the plate solve coordinates and compare those with what eqmod is saying, if they are different then the mount is not really pointing where it thinks it is.

Hmm, i too use nina and dont have problems, the plate solve does its thing, then repeats until the target is slap bang in middle of the sensor. Have you checked your camera pixel size is correctly entered in nina? Also there are settings for adjusting how accurate the plate solve and framing interacts, check these too. Another thing have you set the plate solve to sync to your mount after it does a solve so your mount knows exactly where its pointing, then reslew to target via ninas target sky chart or your planetarium software, Then platesolve again.

Ian, yes shooting in raw and stacking in DSS, think i will revisit the subs, restack and go from there taking on all the lovely tips from you kind folks. 

David that looks so much better!!

camera is Canon 1000d, modded, no filters. captured using Nina.

Well after a long time away from processing images I just cant get this M42 right, I don't like the colours too much and really not sure how to go about balancing them better. Also I'd like the background to be a little darker. I'm using photoshop for post processing. Where am I going wrong. Any help and of course criticism most welcome.

Love my esprit 120ed pro bought second hand and it had been fitted with a moonlite focuser!

How about having a go at m31, a nice large bright galaxy, however as others have said longer exposures are beneficial for bringing out faint details. Astrophotography is a slippery slope and get expensive very quickly, depends how far you want to take it really. Id recommend a good solid mount first and foremost (i dont know anything about your mount) say a heq5 minimum, something that will future proof you as you may want to add weight from cameras guide scope and perhaps a bigger telescope,then you could look into guiding which will allow you to take much longer exposures. 

I think thats a really lovely image and well worth the effort you put in!

Just to give a price comparison I picked up a second hand low shutter count canon 6d for £500, Add ti this £150 to have it converted for astro use if required, i had the same debate with myself as your having, however what swayed me to the dslr were not just funding but that i have a skywatcher esprit 120ed pro which is well suited for the full frame of the canon 6d.

http://dslr-astrophotography.com/iso-values-canon-cameras/

There is a thread somewhere on the optimal iso to use for specific dslr cameras, I'll see if i can find it

Sorry forgot to mention i always process as RGB and not individual channels, maybe im doing it wrong, i will follow your thread as i think i will learn a lot from it too!

My knowledge is fairly limited but im sure some more knowledgeable folks will soon be able to help. I too use a dslr and my histogram never seems to venture too far from the left side although it is normally a little bit more than your histogram shows, does what iso we use change this, ive been using iso 400 last time out, maybe i should go back to iso 800.

Hi and a warm welcome to to SGL

Yep, my skywatcher 50ED and zwo 290 mini work fine with sharpcap for polar alignment.

Im not great at the processing side of things but it looks like your only processing the red channel? Maybe change to RGB and see what the histogram looks like.

+1 for NINA,  Since its free there is nothing lost if you don't like it, the support network is great too.

In same boat, however cannot reach him (Andy, astronomiser) via the email on his site, anyone got up to date contact details for him please, much appreciated.

So finally had a chance to get a few hours under the stars. Decided to test equipment and cables, connections, dew bands and software communication etc, it didn't go as planned on the software front as I'd forgot to input correct camera pixel size into NINA 🥴 DOH!! After 2 and a half hours and numerous scale warnings from my plate solving software I finally sussed out my stupidity. Any how this left me with half hour to do a quick imaging test with the following, esprit 120ed pro, modded canon D1000, target M42, 28x 55sec lights stacked in DSS and little bit of processing in photoshop 2020.

You need to select your mount from the drop down arrow and do the same for your guide camera. Ensure that screen actually matches your equipment, I think Ascom simulation is exactly that, just a simulation to test the software environment.