Peco4321

Clear here but big CEO over from Belgium tomorrow so don't want a late night. Good forecast for tomorrow night hopefully.

M27 Dumbbell Nebula, my best yet, really pleased with this, approx. 55 mins of data of mostly 45 sec exposures, some 60 sec, ISO 800, darks and bias, from last Thursday, been away so only processed tonight, tried Startools but just used Photoshop Express for post processing this time. No flats, still struggling with them!

I had a good couple of hours on The Dumbbell Nebula and was comfortable with my 45 sec and some 60 sec subs, some nights balance and polar alignment just seem to click. Away now for the weekend in Guildford at family so can't process till Sunday night maybe even Monday. The anticipation.

Wow

Thanks for all that @Nigel G, and here's my first effort, with the right data in, I think I will get some better results out. Not brilliant, but small steps.

@Nigel G Will give star tools a try, hopefully my old laptop has enough RAM. Thanks.

@Nigel G Will give star tools a try, hopefully my old laptop has enough RAM. Thanks.

I still seem to be getting an oval area of lightness on my images and looking back over all my pictures this is fairly consistent. Any suggestions or will better use of flats reduce this?

First go at Dumbbell Nebula this year, only 13 x 30 sec, at end of session last night, but work at 7 gets in the way of late nights through the week, darks and bias, no flats yet, will add at later stage, need to try and get more data on this target as its lovely.

I know, how amateurish ?? Obviously joking, this is beautiful, an area of sky I am loving trying to image myself.

Next time. Just packed up as work at 7.

Collination just a little out, only got a laser to check not Cheshire Secondary a little loose t ring seems tight enough will have another go tonight to see if little tweaks could have been causing it also I have put the eyepiece cover on, you never know

Thanks @Nigel G, next time this rain stops I'll try these things. I think I have cracked getting the flats now, white pillow case folded in half over the scope the day after taking subs having left everything attached. I think it maybe a loose fitting, like you say, 90' to the scope. I could reduce this by rotating in the rings depending on the angle of the target or maybe taping the t ring so it is tighter in the focuser. Thanks again everyone, the curve of learning carries on and on.....

That explains a lot of my images having a lighter patch in that area. Is it a tilt of my camera on the t ring/ focus or something else. Thanks for taking the time to check this out.

Here you go, not sure it's any better though. Autosave001.tif

Here it is. MasterFlat_ISO800.tif

Thanks @Nigel G, that give me plenty of motivation. I really want some nice images of mine to print out this year and this target is perfect. I have m42 from last year but hope to improve when it comes back (like an old friend!).

Will check tonight.

Cheers. It's so rewarding imaging things I didn't even know existed 18 months ago.

What could be causing that, or maybe just the full moon?

Thanks for all tips everyone, processing is as complex as getting the shot in the 1st place ? I'll keep going at it as it's looking like a cloudy week I tried again just to draw some colour out, loaded the auto saved tiff back into DSS and it seemed to have more colour straight away. Hears a comparison of mine with a google image I found, so I'm quite chuffed.

try this one @mikey2000, I had already started the DSS run before changing any setting but 50mgb not too bad. If no good, I'll stack again tomorrow, need sleep as was out till 0300 this morning, thanks. 8th Julywith flats no processing.TIF

Thanks @mikey2000, do you mean the autosave.tiff, as it's 121mgb! I have assed some flats to Andromeda and think this is an improvement.

I've been setting it at 17%, read it somewhere. Will have a play around and try more data when the moon is out the way. Typical though, Saturday night, clear skies but a bloody great big bright moon.