Nigel G

1 hour ago, The Admiral said:

Thanks Nigel. Yup, good luck, there is an infinity of options 

Ian

Ian, I took the liberty to download and run your M64 through the Photoshop express app, it's made a bit of difference. 

The first time I used the app I couldn't believe what it done to my images, and it's free ?

I hope you don't mind.

Nige

.

Wow what a difference,  much more detail,  nice ☺

I'm re stacking M81 82 to try and get better result, slightly different settings on DSS. 

42 minutes ago, happy-kat said:

Thought it was a 5 kilo limit for the star discovery.

The manual recons 8kg payload, it will be around the limit 

1 hour ago, The Admiral said:

Here's a quick and dirty look at M64, the Black Eye Galaxy. I was out taking some images of the Moon and Jupiter, testing a newly acquired x2 focal extender. After I'd finished that I reverted to my usual set-up and as there was a bit of time I turned the 'scope towards M64. I set the camera going for the first batch of 50 frames, but when I returned to the camera it was completely dead. Not knowing how many frames it had managed and as it was getting a bit late I decided to throw in the towel. In the end I did get about 50 frames, but no flats, darks or bias frames. Not really enough, but this is the result. Not great.

Ian, 

considering there's no dark, flat or bias, I think it's a good image,  It's one of the many galaxy's  I have not seen yet. 

Thanks for sharing. 

Nige.

PS , I have just ordered a set of tube rings and dove tail bar to attempt to mount my 200p dobs on the star discovery mount, It will take the extra load but will be restricted in altitude a little by the tripod legs I think...... Hopefully it will be fine and a good improvement to my dso imaging sessions. 

52 minutes ago, Stub Mandrel said:

Nigel G & the Admiral

If you have a photo-editing package with 'gamma' try reducing it to about 0.82 to 0.90 (unadjusted setting is 1.00). It will darken the background and increase the contrast in the galaxy, without losing you any detail (as long as you don't over do it).

If you have photoshop, use the levels histogram and don't tough the end sliders, just the middle one.

Gamma is a very simple tool and is fantastic for improving details in shadows or burnt out areas of ordinary photos.

 

Hi Neil, 

That's a handy tip, gamma is quite  an aggressive function and I  generally leave it alone, but I will try it now you have given me an idea what to do with it.

The only thing I have used gamma on is planetary images especially Saturn.

I'm going to see what I can do with the images I have as tonight is supposed to be cloudy.

Thanks Neil

Nige.

Last night I did manage to get the light frames of M81-M82 after removing the scope cap ☺.

I took 120 x 30s DSS used only 48 of these, it was slightly cloudy at times. 

StarTools would not improve this image so I  did a little processing in DSS and then enhanced with the Adobe photoshop app, 

If you have an android device I can't recommend this app enough, I run all my images through it to finish off before uploading. It really is fool proof and gives stunning results, the noise reduction is great as is sharpening,  only one thing is limited colour enhancement. 

It's by far the easiest photo enhancement program I've used, and it's free. 

So this image is 48x30s @ 1600 iso light, 50 dark 50 bias with 150p goto, Canon 1200d, DSS & photoshop app.

Nige.

9 hours ago, Filroden said:

M95, M96 and the Leo Tripets (or a lesson on if it can go wrong it will go wrong)

Step 1: Let's take the flats, darks and bias whilst the sun is up...so using the crescent moon to get a good focus...flats [tick], darks [tick], bias [tick]

Step 2: Let's align the finder scope during twilight using Jupiter and BackyardEOS to see my camera live view. Nothing. Okay, maybe the alignment is so bad it's not close to my field of view. Unclamp the scope and slew around in the hope of seeing it flash across the screen. Nope. Okay, maybe my focus has gone completely. Refocus on the Moon. Can't find it. Okay, have I messed up settings on the camera? Doh, yes it's still set to 1/8000s from taking the bias so reset the camera to manual and 30s. Slew back to Jupiter. Still can't find it. Start to pull out hair. Let's put in an eyepiece. Still can't see anything. Maybe I should remove the lens cap from the scope? /facepalm

Step 3: Let's align the mount using three star alignment and live view [tick]

Step 4: Let's get fine focus using the final star since it's bright enough and already in view. Grab mask and see focus is spot on [tick] Unfocus slightly and refocus just to make sure [tick]

Step 5: Slew to target and take a single 30s ISO1600 shot to check composition. Stars are heavily trailed. Maybe the mount needed longer to get steady? Take another shot. Still heavily trailed. Take a third shot. Still...hold on, those are weird trails. They look more like acute star spikes. Maybe remove the mask? /facepalm

Step 6: Repeat step 5. Image looks great and is centred exactly as shown in SkySafari. A first for my alignment. I normally have to adjust slightly. Lesson learnt: aligning using an eyepiece, even using unfocused stars and an 8mm eyepiece, is not as accurate as using live view. Proceed to take lights.

Step 7: Slew to Margarin's Chain to grab a few more lights to integrate with data from the weekend. Again, perfect alignment on the goto meaning I could frame my shot using SkySafari!

Anyway, here's a processed shot of M95, M96 and the Leo Triplets using the Esprit 80 on the Evo mount and the Canon 60D. It's 57 x 30s lights at ISO1600 with 50 darks. The flats didn't work so I also didn't use the bias.

 

P.S. Step 8: Post to forum then notice I linked the Markarian's Chain and not the Leo shot. My face is getting very sore now.

I set up last night to photo M81 -82 , just needed to wait for it to get a little darker so indoors to have a cuppa, when dark enough I set 50 frames at 30s and pressed go. The mount is fine with 30s, can keep all images, so leave scope and camera doing there bit. 25 minutes later Check images, all blank. Scratch head, ahh take scope cap off. Oh well darks done ☺

Nice image , keep it up. 

Nige.

I just had to share these 2 with you I know M 13 was favourite, I'm having a little trouble processing it so 101 and 51 after StarTools,  I never expected to get images like this when I started out. These are far beyond my expectations,  I'm over the moon.

thanks for all your advice 

Nige.

Very nice image,  I like the colours that have come out. 

Nige

2 hours ago, happy-kat said:

Take a look at the rotation links on the last page or so I found very interesting on how many seconds depending on where looking and it was not what I was expecting.

Really like the second image.

StarTools my PC is 32 bit and not hugely fast so to reduce crashes massively the first thing to do is crop generously and then bin 50%. After that it is faster too.

Thanks for the information,  I have tried cropping then binning and StarTools works much faster, ☺

Another step forward,  Great ? 

Nige.

A beautifully clear night last night gave me the chance to get some images of M51 & M13. 

These are both about 40 x 50s @ 1600 iso lights 30 dark and 50 bias stacked and once again these images are straight from DSS, unfortunately StarTools runs incredibly slow, I was 2 hours into processing and it crashed ? But still I'm very happy with these.

50 seconds exposure and being able to keep 75 %, I think with high altitude objects I'm getting better results as the mount moves slower, I recon 60 - 90 seconds will be possible.  Low altitude objects 30 seconds is max, M42 last night failed with 20 seconds max. I did get a 70 second exp of M13 though ☺

Clear sky's 

Nige.

Thanks you all your support, ...... Happy-kat  this is with my 150p goto , not by hand ☺That would be special if I could guide by hand.

I have an autosave Fits file for Star tools.  This image was a screen grab from canon photo express to get it small enough to email to myself as I can't transfer to my android device via pc, I have an odd setup at home. My regular pc is nackerd,  my astro pc won't connect to the Android or load SGL, so have to email pics to tablet to up load.?

I'm going to try and process in ST's tomorrow. 

Nige.

I finally got a stacked image to share, this is a result direct from DSS not modified yet.

Next step is StarTools. 

M101. 20 x 40s lights iso 1600, 15 dark, 50 bias. Stacked in DSS slightly modified in DSS. 

Nige.

12 minutes ago, happy-kat said:

Do you have dss creating an autosave fits file, that is best for startools. Is there no autosave file at all? Is the file you have zero bytes?

There is no file at all, I'm running it again and checked autosave tiff is ticked and saving to a folder I want it to. Just waiting now, somehow it's registering over 90000 stars even though there's nowhere near that amount in the photos. 

Well that was a complete fail, all processes done and I have no image ???????  Absolutely nothing not even a bad picture , there's no file. Over 2 hours long for zilch. 

Help needed.

Just fishing for info as I'm in the process of stacking 20 x 40s light 15 dark and 50 bias as a tester.

I'm going to download StarTools  if my pc is up to it. But can I use gimp to work on the image ?

This is my second go at stacking this afternoon as first attempt was cut short a hour in to it by wife turning switch to pc off Grrrrrrrrrrr. She thought it was the plug to her battery charger. 

Oooh final image is being computed. 

Time to see what I've got

Don't know if I used right settings,  will let you know how it goes. 

Nige.

15 minutes ago, Nigel G said:

Unusually low objects are harder than high ones, I get around a minute exp time longest. Problem is not field rotation, it's trails. Being un guided is the biggest problem I think.

lower objects limited to 30 - 40s

Nige.

M42 in January  1x30s iso  6400  canon 1200d

Nige

6 hours ago, SilverAstro said:

Interesting to see what single exposures on AltAz are like , thanks for showing.

I have read (somewhere on the interweb !) that the problem of field rotation varies depending on where in the sky one is pointing and so with M42 now in the west and in one of the 'better'? directions (a little)longer exposures for the subs may be ok ?

Unusually low objects are harder than high ones, I get around a minute exp time longest. Problem is not field rotation, it's trails. Being un guided is the biggest problem I think.

lower objects limited to 30 - 40s

Nige.

43 minutes ago, happy-kat said:

Is that the 200p 1200mm on your discovery 150p's mount?

Do like your cluster/glob images.

Thanks..

The goto mount I only use the 150p....The dobsonian I have fashioned a way to move both axis smoothly by hand, it's a bit awkward but I can get about 10s without trails.

Nige.

6 minutes ago, SteveNickolls said:

Hi happy-kat, Thanks for the kind comments. As you know I'm still learning StarTools (do you ever stop?) but will see what further experimenting with the noise removal tool provides. Thanks for the idea.

Nigel G you have some good one shot images there. Are you going to attempt multiple images next and stack in DSS? That will improve detail and colour. Keep up the good work!

Cheers,
Steve

Steve.

Yes I fancy a go at multiple shot stacking, I did try about 2 months ago but not very good, I'm reading and learning, I have a set of bias ready, darks are no problem it's just dss I'm getting use to. And still waiting for a clear still night  as a slight breeze shakes my cheap scope  ☺

Nige.

What a great topic, it gives me hope ☺

I have taken a few single shot images ( still not got my head around dss) but I'm trying. 

I was quite chuffed with these images considering I was expecting a blur. 

Taken with Star discovery 150p synscan goto alt az, 200p dobsonian and canon eos 1200d

M101 pinwheel. 1x47s iso 3200 + little work with photo express app.

Whirlpool galaxy 1x30s iso 3200 +photo express 

M3 1x47s iso 6400 + photo express.

M31 1x30s iso 1600 + photo express 

Owl nebula 1x30s iso 6400 + photo express 

Double cluster 1x30s iso 1600 + photo express. 

M42 1x30s with orion all in one cam.

Comet Catalina 1x10s with dobsonian. 

Nige.

Howdy. 

I have uploaded some images, unfortunately I uploaded them twice, I  can't seem to delete the unwanted images. I have tried deleting in editing but doesn't seem to work. 

Help please  ☺

Thanks for all your help Peter & Chris, I was given a computer by a good friend which runs registax at a good speed. Also Autostakkert works well.

I have now completed my first stack from an avi using PIPP and registax, just need to get photoshop or similar.

I'm new to astro photography, learning fast and loving it.

The only thing is I need more clear sky's.

Cheers

Nigel.

Thanks Chris. I have tried autostakkert and had same problem but now PIPP sorts my files out I will try again.

PIPP is a very good bit of software, I'm impressed with what you can do with video files

Thanks for your advice

Nigel.

Run the .mov file through PIPP and this will convert the file to .avi https://sites.google.com/site/astropipp/

peter.

Thank you, so far so good. I run the file through PIPP and it has loaded up to Registax, Its freezing from time to time but thats down to my old pc

Your help is much appreciated.

Nigel.