Paul2019

Well, im fed up with struggling to focus at 55mm as I think the lens is just crappy, but heres 29 x 20s @ ISO400. Processed in PS and im chuffed with it. Its widefield for sure but theres Lyra, Cygnus and Hercules in there I just spotted the top corner then so heres it re done abit, I know its still not amazing but for my 5th picture its definitely getting there. Im going to enter this one into the competition for the kicks lol

I will post the results. On another note I have sourced a reasonably priced WO zenithstar 66 SD. Once thats bought I can think about a mount. I was going to go with the mount first but this is too well priced to pass up

Awesome picture! How did you process it? Much like Anthony, I can only seem to get 8 secs but its looking clear tonight so ill attempt 20s and see what happens

Hello again, Last night I attempted to image using the kits lens again but at 55mm f5.6. I started out on Lyra again and was quite happy with the result. Its 50 x 8s subs @ iso400. Im actually pretty happy with this one and I am pleased with the result. My attention then turned to Cygnus with my target star being Deneb. I thought I would try to extend the exposure time to 10 seconds and upped the ISO to 800 to see the difference. On the indivual subs I found more detail but after stacking found I was unhappy with it. I think 10s is also too long. Heres the result of 32 x 10s Both images processed very slightly in photoshop, im sure a lot more could be done with them but im still learning what to do with them, as always thoughts and critisms welcomed. Paul

For me its got to be the first one Awesome images either way though

I'm another vote for try it, technically it may be too much. I dont own a mount at the moment but I would say be wary of the RA motors if your tracking because overloading those could put a quick end to it all. Buti dont know they weight of the OTA or camera your using. Please do share your attempts/efforts Paul

Thanks, I just wish it would stop raining for a few days. Thanks for your comments, I cant wait until the winter for the earlier nights and better imaging prospects with Pleiades, Orion and M31 being far better positioned for me. I live under bortle 3/4 depending on where in the garden I am so I am very hopeful for a productive winter. Im ust trying to get my basics with the camera and tripod before making it more complex.

I hope you dont mind but I have processed it a tad further for you and ran it through astrometry to see what you shot, Heres the results using the same technique as my Hercules image The picture shows part of Lyra with the brightest star being Vega and the rest goes into Cygnus. I am very interested to hear how many subs, exposure times etc. It looks great! Paul

Hi Olly, Thank you so much for this, it was really helpful and made me figure some stuff out I didnt quite understand already. I am confident that the gradient in the image is caused by moonlight as it was fairly close at the time of shooting, but GradientXterminator really fixed that well.I am hopelessly colour blind which makes editing images tricky at the best of times, however using the point sampler and comparing the colour values made this far far easier. I tried your trick to reduce the bloated stars but it removed a lot of the data from the image so I decided that I was happy with the result even though they are slightly bloated. I am now very happy with this image after going through your advice and considering this is my second attempt I am definitely a happy bunny. I know I still have lots to learn and I am definitely adamant that I first need to be consistently producing good wide field images before I add more things into the equation like tracking mounts and scopes as I am sure this will only complicate things further plus I think I need to start considering adding flats and darks to my stacks which may improve them further as well. Anyways heres the new image Again thanks so much for all the input you guys have had so far its really made things easier for me to understand and spurs me onto the next one. Paul

I'm unsure on the f-stop, but I'm happy with it to a degree but its clear the 20s subs are too long as theres some clear trailing on the image. Its by no means perfect and I do have a bit of a habit of being my own worst critic, so I doubt I will ever be 100% happy. Cygnus will definitely be my next target as I would also be keen to see what is achievable there. I am very sure the Frac is what I want however. Its definitely there but its not exactly anything special, I am hoping to improve with practise but I really want to get the hang of widefield and using the DSLR before I add more kit into the equation. Thanks for this, I would of done it otherwise. Its actually not that bad when you have stretched it. Out of curiosity what did you do to keep it looking this good? Also this image is a compressed PNG so I am even more impressed with it. Thanks for all your replies and responses. I will aim for Cygnus as my next target to see how that goes, hopefully I will produce something worth entering into the competition before it closes. Heres to cloud free nights, Paul

So heres my second attempt done tonight, typically I haven't had a clear night since my last attempt and the one we do get is after a 12 hour shift but needs must and all that. Its a widefield constellation shot of Hercules also in the frame is Lyra and Corona Borealis, but if you squint really hard and zoom in you can kind of make out where M13 and M92 are as very small fuzzies. My first load of subs were out of focus and deep sky stacker wouldn't have them and I got a few more and then the clouds rolled in limiting me to just 7 usable subs. Taken with my canon 400d 18mm lens. 7 x 20s subs @ ISO 800, processed in photoshop. Its definitely an improvement on my first attempt but I'm still not that happy with it but until I get a scope and mount all I can do is widefield stuff. I am seriously considering the 130p-ds with Eq3-pro from first light optics but I'm still very torn between this and an ed72. I do want to use it visually occasionally and having previously had a 90mm Achro Frac I know what to expect here with that but sense is telling me the reflector would be best but I really love fracs. I've been waiting for M31 but unfortunately at this time of year its too low for me to image from home as there happens to be a street light right in the way. There truly are some amazing images on this forum and some very talented induvials, I know what I have so far are no where near the same level but someday I hope to be taking amazing images too. Please share your criticisms and thoughts on how I can improve it is very much appreciated as without it I wouldn't have the foggiest on how to improve.

Hello, good luck with your setup. Id be keen to see what you produce

Thanks for the link. Really helpful, hopefully will have a clearish night tonight for round 2

Thats the plan for the next clear night. I really want to invest in a goto eq mount and a apo refractor but feel like its pointless until I have the basics figured out.

Thanks, I was aiming at Vega in Lyra. How did you do the overlay? I played in photoshop and achieved similar results. Out of curiousity how do you post images on this forum?

Ok so some lesson learnt here, make sure camera settings are good as theres way too much noise in this to process properly. I need more data, try for longer subs. And keep trying, thanks for your help

I have both photoshop and gimp but I have no clue what to do with them, Camera is a Canon 400d with the standard 18-35mm lens. Exposure time was 4 seconds @ iso1600 (Which was supposed to be 800). Can you remove hot pixels? Paul

Hi All, Long time lerker but first time poster here. I have just made the decision to move into astrophotography and I have got a DSLR and I have just taken my first photo. Its 9 x 4sec subs of lyra stacked in DSS. But now I am stuck with no idea at all on how to process it. Any tips or pointers appreciated. Thanks Paul Autosave001.tif