Grant93

Fantastic for a first attempt at M31, much better than mine

Good to know A bit unrelated, but I read somewhere that if the Tarantula nebula in the LMC was as close as the Orion nebula is to us, it would cover the same area as 60 Full moons, and be bright enough to cast shadows. Now I dont know whether that would be magnificent to see or a hinderence to the other Nebulas it would overshadow 😅. I tried to use that NBA module on my NAN after downloading the bleeding edge version, but couldnt work out how to use it

Awesome to see that even nebulous regions of other galaxys can be picked up by modded DSLRs, didnt know if this was possible before now . Do you think this would benefit from a HA filter to bring out more nebulous regions, or is this a job for dedicated astro cameras only?

And with that reaction, you understand why the hobby is so addictive The excitement of catching photons from thousands to millions of lightyears away, captured on your screen for everyone to see. There are also other DSOs I can spot on there, such as the double cluster under cassio. Get yourself to a dark sky and you will see Andromeda with your naked eye

Wanting to try this NBAccent after reading about it, but can't find it on there 😕

Nice process, I too love to try and get a nice darker red, but struggle not to saturate the rest of the picture also! As you will see in my further efforts following But yeah did a couple more efforts, the dark red one is probably too overprocessed, but I like saturated reds, but struggle to not saturate the background aswell as the stars. So its a struggle to keep it from looking overprocessed. The other one I love the color of the stars, but want a deeper red in the nebulosity but can't achieve it without saturating the stars too.. But atleast it doesnt look overprocessed, to me.. Let me know what you think

Thanks for that, will revisit this post when I come to processing again Nice process! Thank you, always nice to see what other people and software do with the same image

Love the color of the nebulosity and stars. Can you expand on the leaving more room for the fainter stuff? Not sure I understand. Thank you 😃 Regards Grant

Hi all, Back again at the NAN, but this time with the modified camera, unlike my one back in summer which was a unmodded one. I plan on adding to this on my next clear night, but I am pretty happy with the results as is, but I do want better SNR. Really struggled to process this with the massive amount of stars overtaking the image, some advice would be very welcome on how to work around the stars, reducing as much as possible to help the nebulosity pop a bit more. Will add the TIFF see if anyone else wants to give it a go at processing Anyhow, heres just over 3 hours of the NAN and Pelican. Under about a half moon, although so far from the target I dont think it even effected it, could still see a washed out milky way for the majority of the early night at the Zenith. 3 Hours @ 90 Second exposures - Manually dithered every 5ish frames (Its good I dont get bored under a clear night sky) 25 Flats and Bias Processed in StarTools mainly with some tweaks in Gimp. Samyang 135mm Modded 600D SGP Regards, Grant 600D NA Nebula.TIF

Hello! I'll answer for what I can haha, take it with a pinch of salt, I'm also still a beginner! How long? Limited to two factors! Star trailing and light pollution - If your stars start to trail, either improve your polar allignment or shorten your exposures need them stars nice and round. When it comes to light pollution, try to keep the peak of the histogram on the left of the centre, if your images are too bright you need to shorten your exposures. The more light pollution, the shorter the exposures you will have to take. How many? As many as possible, simple The more the better SNR (Signal to noise ratio) Settings? Idk, I use canon personally Software? DSS to stack, StarTools and Gimp to process, they are what I use. But theres a lot out there that people use, such as Pixinsight, Photoshop, Siril, and loads loads more. Other advice? Look around the forum and youtube, loads and loads of advice, people to ask who will help you with anything you need Regards, Grant

Saw this myself whilst imaging last night, only had enough time to whip my phone out. Sad I couldn't get a better picture. Was baffled when I saw it though 😆

Just thought I've read it somewhere - if not, then I've been doing it wrong this whole time hahaha. I've been making librarys from each night, feel silly now. I trust your opinion more than my own, you're far more experienced than me.

Bias is temperature dependant, aslong as its same ISO, give or take 5 degrees I believe is the rule. Flats are optical train dependant, you can reuse them aslong as you dont change focus, or the telescope/lens. Dark flats I just follow the same rule as Flats, if im taking flats, I retake dark flats also

As other people told me, Dither and get lots of data to help with the SNR That advice certainly worked for me!

Hello everyone, I posted here probably about a week ago, with frustrations and troubles on a certain target, and just general frustrations a beginner goes through. Anyhow, with help from the community, and an extra thanks to @alacant for the extra help and advise with StarTools, I've finally produced an image I am actually proud of. Although its framed up the same as my last one, non of the same data was used, totally new data. I was fed up with my last image, and past images I've posted here, looking more like cartoon drawings full of noise rather than real images. Although it's still not perfect, its the closest to real I've gotten. It was taken over 2 nights, both with near full moons. I still don't know why I chose this as a pair to image, rather than the traditional Heart and Soul, probably my only regret. Anyhow, heres the info and picture. 3 hours and 30 minutes of Lights @ 60 second exposures dithered manually probably every 5 images. (Helps to have the dob set up or binoculars to keep me entertained haha). Zero Darks 40 Flats 40 Dark Flats 40 Bias LPS Light Pollution Filter Samyang 135mm Modified 600D iOptron Skyguider Pro Processed in StarTools, also did a little extra tweeks in Gimp afterwards. Edit: Not happy with how it looks uploaded haha, looks a bit more blurry. When clicked on it seems to look sharper, more how it looks on my computer.

Hello there everyone, Was out using the Skyguider Pro last night, for the first time I heard a weird, grindy/clicking noise when slewing one way only, the other way sounded fine still. Not sure what the issue could be as tracking was still fine. No noticeable star trailing using my 135mm Lens at 60 seconds, could of easily push it more, but the moon was restricting that. Just wondering what anything thinks this could be? Wanting to take it with me when I go away on October 2nd, so hoping its not something that needs sending off. Have attached a video with the sounds, cheers Grant 20210924_081128.mp4

When using my ZS61 I had this trouble also, before even trying platesolving I just bought a red dot finder. Now when using my ZS61 I dont even think about plate solving, never struggled to find a target with a red dot finder. Usually find it first or second time, then adjust a few times for framing. Edit; Although I don't take anything away from platesolving, most people who are a lot better than me at this hobby use it.. at this moment in time, I've just never had a use for it.

Messaged as didnt want to overtake your post Cheers

Your images always give me hope that Startools is the right thing to use, I just need to be able to use it properly! Got some new dithered data on my heart nebula, not having much luck with it. Its gotten rid of the walking noise, but still very noisy, could only get an hour though before clouds rolled it. Just experimenting now stacking it with old data.

Yes I always thought that above autodev, although it brings out loads, it also seems to make the image look way way overprocessed, but I suppose you can tone things down later on. But I'll take a look at the manual thanks For some reason when I first read APP I thought you meant photoshop (Idk how 😅), so I thought there might be something similar on GIMP, but then I realised it wasnt PS. Ill give it a go again after gathering more data with Autodev rather than Filmdev then, I forgot about the ROI tool in Autodev. About dithering, its something I really want to do, but how do I go about it without a guiding set up? Cheers!

Thank you! Hopefully them teething issues are sorted for our next clear night Ill try increasing the subs a little next then, see how it goes after stacking. Unfiltered I did do 90 seconds once not even thinking about the histo, only looking for max without startrails. Then when it came to stacking it was still rather bright. And a 'light brown' in the unprocessed tif 😅 (Thought they were meant to be pretty black until processed). But now I have the filter I'll try again Brilliant picture also, hopefully I can come close to such a result! Yeah I use the 'filmdev' too (I assume thats the manual one?) Autodev-Crop-Bin-Wipe-Filmdev. What minor tweaks are those you do in APP may I ask? Hopefully I can do something similar in GIMP. Cheers

Hello everyone! First clear skies I've had since a recent purchase, wanted a modded DSLR but didnt want to get my 800D modded as I use it for daytime also, so I brought a second hand modded 600D with a LPS filter courtesy of @teoria_del_big_bang - Thank you very much again and was nice to meet you . So now going to use my 800D for Reflection nebula only, and the 600D for everything else . But last night was the first oppurtunity I had for a test drive, sadly it was intermittent cloud coverage, but just left it running away and deleted anything ruined by clouds! Was also a 84% or so moon, but nowhere near the object, still a far from perfect night though. Now I do plan on getting more and more data on this, but was too eager just to leave it unstacked and editted, as I wanted to see what I had caught. Aiming it towards the Heart and Double cluster (Wanted soul too, but that would leave too much near the edges, at risk of being cropped out after a few nights and bad framing). I was impressed from the first sub, actually being able to see the full heart on a single sub of 40 seconds. Sadly that brings me onto another problem, even with the LPS filter, sky glow was still troubling me with my Samyang 135mm, even stopped down to F4.0, I understand the moon wouldnt be helping, but I've had the issue before without a moon, maxing out at around 40-50 seconds before the histogram goes too far to the right and the image becomes bright. Is this a common issue with this lens in a bortle 5? One more problem I'm hoping I have the answer to myself, but just want it confirming. I process in startools, is this 'mottling' effect, that is basically the space between everything, stars, nebula etc, caused by noise? Made worse by only 1 hours data? So getting more data would improve the SNR and there for reduce the mottling? I can see its walking noise also, but don't have a guiding set up yet so can't dither. Here it is anyhow, critique as usual pleaaase 1 Hours data @ 40 seconds per sub 20 of every caliberation frame Modded 600D LPS Filter SGP unguided And the odd cloud.

It all tordapends how far you're willing to travel, for us in the Midlands, that is the sort of light pollution you kind of have to put up with. Unless you're willing to drive out for 2-3 hours. For example my nearest (That I know of) Bortle 4 is a 30minute drive, but then to get to Bortle 3 probably around 2 hours, bortle 2 about 2:30-3 hours. Even though I live in a smallish town, I find it worse than living in certain big citys, because any direction I drive in, I'm driving towards another damn city. North Derby and Sheffield, East you've got Leicester, West Stafford and Stoke, south Birmingham and Coventry. https://www.lightpollutionmap.info Check that map to see how far you're willing to drive My own personal experience is, I don't drive out for a night to observe or image (probably reflects in my images :DDDD, but people get brilliant images from worse skys, so its just because I'm learning haha). I want to drive to the bortle 4, but when push comes to shove, I just set up in my bortle 5 back garden. But what I do is, whenever we go on holiday, I always eye up the darkest skies and make sure I go on a new moon week. Earlier this year I went to Northumberland, turned out to be a cloudy week and got 1 clear night, but it was breath taking on that clear night in a bortle 2, pointing out constellations becomes hard as they're drowned out by thousands of other stars you could never see with your naked eye from anywhere else, clear views of even the dimmer parts of the milkyway around Cygnus (Didnt stay up late enough for the core to rise). In october we're going down to lizards point in cornwall, also bortle 2-3! But also remember clouds ruin your experience, so don't just go for the dark skies, we go to walk to dog and see national parks, nice beaches and new views, if we get any clear skies its a bonus . Sorry I feel that this kind of went off on a tanget, but I feel I needed to explain my answer and what I do personally

Trouble with the peaks is, its a very populated national park in the park itself, but also surrounded by major citys. Mancs, Sheffield, Derby and Notts. I always find unlike a lot of other national parks, the peaks really doesn't have decent dark skies, bortle 4 at best I believe. So where ever you point the camera, lower to the horizon are big horrible glows.

I'm not too sure how long you've been in this hobby, but to a beginners eyes, this looks like a fantastic photo, as if you've been doing it years. Sorry I couldnt come up with any constructive critism, but I can't, its 10x better than anything I've produced!