Nigel G

Ken. The only way I could rid the gradients and noise was with isolate tool. I think as many have pointed out, flats will (should) help with the gradients, I'll get right to it. Nige.

The veil is with my 150p scope.

Had a chance yet ??

I'm not sure if its my scope causing the gradients coupled with an entry level DSLR, The secondary mirror supports are quite thick relative to an imaging scope plus I have around an inch of draw tube extending into the main tube. Non of this helps my imaging. Without the isolation tool in the life module I don't know what I would do. Thank StarTools. Nige.

That's a good point Ian.

This is the image before any noise reduction work, Just binned, developed, cropped and a touch of HDR. and a load of noise To me this looks much sharper but I loose the sharpness during noise reduction and further processing. Theres a link to the fts at the bottom if anyone is bored and wants something to process https://1drv.ms/u/s!Av3mI1-jgAvwcIvZwbzjRcPwXIU

Steve, I did use layer module once last week, it seemed to just offset the layers and fuss up the image, mind you I didn't give it much of a chance ☺ YouTube research needed. Nige.

Ian. I use kappa sigma clipping always, next session I will gather more darks and give flats ago too. Nige.

Thanks Steve, I am pleased with it considering the short amount of exposure time, to be honest its better than I expected. I masked the stars as I could not get a good star colour, they looked fake, this is what I struggle with most on ST I find colour harder than noise to deal with I'm going to try different things to see what I can do. That's part of the fun, quite often I make my images worse by messing about and go for a total restart lol. Cheers Nige.

Thanks for your kind comment Ian. I'm having the same background noise with both scope and lenses. I read in " Making every photon count " I think, 12 - 15 dark frames and 50 bias is all that is needed, the darks are to remove hot pixels and sensor noise I believe. Maybe it's different for lots of short exposures? I think I need to do a bit more research into exactly what is needed for stacking lots of shorts with DSLRs. to be honest I prefer my image just developed in StarTools, to my eye the nebula is sharper but obviously more noise, horrible background colour and not so visible . I'll post it without noise reduction after I've finished processing another stack I'm attempting now which answers your other querie, this is my first stack without dark frames, early indications are not much difference. Nige.

Theres some great images being posted, well done chaps. I seem to be loosing the noise battle atm. the last 3 images I have taken have had incredible noise levels. I'm not sure what has changed. I took 3 hours of 60s exps of Heart and Soul with my 210mm lens, its impossible to work with. I tried to image the Eastern Veil last night, I could only get about 20 minutes of 30sec subs before light cloud spoilt the session. I used darks and bias but again had a long battle with background noise, I'm struggling to work this out. I realise this is short on total exp time but I have imaged other objects with similar total time without the huge noise levels. I'm sure I'll sus it out, just hope its sooner rather than later. Seeing appeared to be good and light pollution same as ever. Taking 3 hours of subs then 4 hours stacking for a screen full of multi coloured pixels is not what I had in mind . or perhaps I just forgot how to process. Anyway enough of me moaning Here's my Veil neb, around 20 minutes of 30s, 15 darks 50 bias and a lot of post stacking work. DSS and StarTools. Any suggestions are welcome. Nige.

Ian, a fabulous M31 image, fills the frame perfect, well done. I took 2 hour 20mins of 60s with my 210mm lens 2 nights ago, taking my time processing it though.

Stedi, I had a quick go at processing your image with StarTools , with a bit more time I think theres a lot more in there, its quite difficult reducing the background noise. Also the colour adjustment in StarTools is not the easiest to work with. Thanks for posting the link. Nige.

Very nice first attempt Stedi, I'll have a go a bit later when I get home. Although I don't think I will be able to improve on your processing.

When I look at these images on a PC or large screen there is a huge difference between them, when I look at them on my tablet or phone it's not so obvious. The noise reduction is the biggest change along with improved detail. My 135mm is a f3.6 lense, I'm pleased with the results Nige I'm trying to purchase StarTools atm but there seems to be a problem, I have mailed them to try and sort it out.

I have been watching some YouTube videos on startools and discovered how to use a few more of the tools, I still struggle with colour though. So I have been re processing most of my images with improvement. I'm sure there's a fair bit more to learn yet. Also I installed startools on my new PC and it runs 3 times quicker. I have posted a couple of comparisons, the original then the newer, Your thoughts are welcome. Nige. Omega 1st Omega re processed Andromida 135mm 1st Andromida 135mm reprocessed

If the darks and bias have already been used, un check the register already registered frames , in DSS , that cuts out a bit of processing. Nige

Not sure if you can stack using the master dark and master bias, must try and load the masters next stack.

I'm not sure if you can add to an already stacked image, I don't think you can with DSS , not sure about other programs and whether it would have the same effect as DSS. Interested to find out. Nige.

Very nice images Alex, your lucky to be getting the chance , not even a gap in the clouds here. Cheers Nige.

I have been playing with Photoshop for hours (loads of hours), its an old version PS CS2, but I squeezed as much as I could, There's a lot of tabs tools and stuff, only looking on youtube has given me an idea where to start. There clearly is nebula emissions visible in everyone's good efforts, thanks. PS does give you lots of options to manipulate the image, I like it and must look into getting a modern version. With darker sky's I'm confident I will capture what I'm after. Cheers Nige.

Ian, I like it, good colours and the nebula is there, Under dark sky's will make the difference I think, I hope ☺. We'll see soon enough, I hope. Cheers Nige

Steve, that's a nice clean image, thanks for your good efforts, there all better than mine, I have a lot to learn with StarTools, I'm re stacking and saving as a tiff file to see what PS can do. The stacking alone without registering is taking just over 2 hours ?. Cheers Nige

Ken, it's looking good, It's in there I can see the faint outline of the nebula, I'm going to give it a go with photoshop CS2,, I've not used it yet so not sure how well it works with stacked images. I think I need to save as tiff file though. Thanks, all information is greatly appreciated. Nige.

I like to push myself behond the limits and see what is possible, I haven't finished with this dso yet, I believe from a dark site and with my equipment I can get this dso with as little as 1.5 hours of exposure, I know it will not be a great image but I will find more emissions. I have set myself this challenge, its what I enjoy, a tough challenge. I love imaging dso's and continually get blown away by what we can capture. There's plenty of time. Nige.