Darrellc

Yeah, I was actually thinking the same thing. I had meant to set it at 2 but forgot to do it before I started shooting.

Thanks. I thought I had it in focus but apparently not.

The first image has a FWHM score of 7.03 and the second one is 8.30. The total score for the first one was 890. This image was taken a few nights earlier with a Nikon 85mm at f1.8 and 1’ 15” exposures. The score on this one was 9160 and the FWHM score was 5.26. Again my untrained eye thought the second image from above was way better than this one and yet it scored so much higher. I forgot to mention that I used 50 darks and 20 bias files but no flats. I assumed the stars in the corners were elongated due to vignetting.

I am a rank beginner in astrophotograhy and I am looking for some help with in understanding what is the difference between these two images and why one scores so much higher than the other one in dss. The equipment involved is a skyguider pro, Nikon D5300, and a Nikon 24-70 2.8 lens. These were shot at 70mm and f2.8. ISO was 1600 and exposure time was 1’ 36”. The first image had a much higher score than the second one. To my untrained eye the second image looked much better. When I started the shoot the moon was about half way illuminated and was directly opposite of the target. After about an hour and a half into the shoot the moon had set. I have been pretty good at figuring out mistakes I’ve made with other shoots but this one has me totally baffled. Any help would be greatly appreciated.