Nigel G

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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.

M42 in January 1x30s iso 6400 canon 1200d Nige

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.

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.

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 ☺