Grant93

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

1 hour ago, AstroMuni said:

A modded DSLR is essentially an astro camera sensor without the cooling capabilities.

Good to know

1 hour ago, Shimonu said:

That nebulosity in the top-right, or bottom-left in the second picture, looks very interesting. I'm sure it looks spectacular from inside the galaxy.

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 😅.

1 hour ago, alacant said:

Good idea. Especially with StarTools' latest NBAccent module. In fact, it maybe an idea to try loading just the red from this into the same. 

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?

3 hours ago, Mariofeds said:

OH MY GOD... I DISCOVERED MY PHONE HAS A FEATURE WHERE YOU CAN ADJUST EXPOSURE! FOR THIS ONE I LEANED MY PHONE AGAINST A STREET LAMP AND YOU CAN SEE ANDROMEDA! MY PHONE COLLECTED LIGHT FOR LIKE 30 SECONDS

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

50 minutes ago, alacant said:

AutoDev-decon-shrink the stars where you want them, then use Entropy to boost just the Ha channel.

Try loading the red into NBAccent?

Like the first one. Especially the stars.

Cheers

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

2 hours ago, Clarkey said:

Just had a quick go at this. I tried to keep as much of the red nebulosity across the field. Maybe a little too colourful...

This was a merger of a de-starred version (starnet++) and the original, some stretching and run through Astroflat pro add-in. Good data to process.

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

12 hours ago, alacant said:

Not sure what st modules you used nor what you did in GIMP but here are a few general points for st and faint nebulosity.

On the second and any subsequent AutoDevs, try including a more representative ROI. Experiment with different ROIs looking at the effect of each. For example, try part of the nebula, then an area of star field. Try a saturated star with and without background... The best way to get the hang of it is to try it. It only takes a few seconds and you see the results instantly.

In this shot I think it important to sample faint nebulosity as well as part of that dense star field, otherwise as you note, the stars take over.

Another good indication of whether you're losing data is to have a look at the transition between nebula and background. Don't allow the latter to go too dark with too abrupt a gradient. 

Don't worry if you don't get it right first time as the beauty of st is that you can redo development as and when you like.

 

Thanks for that, will revisit this post when I come to processing again

11 hours ago, Stuf1978 said:

I had a quick go with your data in Siril and Photoshop, it's nice data with some nice detail especially in the dark dusy areas  

The sheer number of stars in this area is always going to give you problems and it's really hard to tease out any of the finer details without blowing out all the stars. Anyway I performed a quick photometric colour calibration in Siril and used the autostretch function. The image was then transferred to Photoshop where I used selective colour to single out the nebulosity and performed a slight curve adjustment to bring out a little more detail. I then used the astronomy tools action set to make stars smaller and enhance the DSO. Then it was just a few tweaks in camera raw to vibrance and saturation.

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

29 minutes ago, Maclean156 said:

Hi all. 

After being out of stock for ages I've finally received my t adapter for my celestron edge hd 8 so I can now start taking photos of galaxies etc. 

I've am going to attach my nikon d5100 to the scope and was wondering what are good settings as a start point. 

ie how long should my exposures be?

How many? 

General settings for this camera?

What software to use?

Plus any other useful advise thanks. 

I have an intevalometer I'm going to use with it. 

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 😆

5 hours ago, vlaiv said:

Are you sure about bias being temperature dependent?

Bias is just read out signal and nothing more. There is no time for any sort of dark current to form. They can be noisier on higher temperatures but their signal should in no way depend on temperature.

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

13 hours ago, woldsman said:

Bravo! I am after the same targets using the same Samyang 135mm lens and am ending up with lots of noise. Will check the earlier thread! 

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

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.

32 minutes ago, alacant said:

Hi

JTOL: try just the dithered frames too?

I think that you're gonna need at least 2 hours of dithered frames to be able to bring the second and any subsequent Autodev(s)to where you'd like it.

Post the data if you like.

Cheers

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.

21 hours ago, The Lazy Astronomer said:

Autodev is probably one of the most difficult things to master in Startools - I struggle endlessly with it trying different roi's and fiddling with the parameters. Sometimes it seems a bit too keen to show the very faintest nebulosity, to the detriment of the overall image, but ultimately it does give a better stretch than film dev.

Have you read the unofficial manual? Some useful tips and tricks in there. 

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

21 hours ago, Clarkey said:

Unfortunately the are not reproducible in Gimp. I do background gradient removal on the stacks before transferring to ST. I find it helps give a better result on some targets. To be honest I do not have a fixed work flow. I always stack in APP as I think it gives excellent results. Sometimes I combine RGB in APP sometimes I use Startools. I try lots of different versions until I get one I am happy with.

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.

1 hour ago, alacant said:

Hi

Nice shot.

You can minimise the effect by choosing a more suitable ROI for second and subsequent AutoDevs and/or just kill it using the Denoise module's large scale slider.

@jager945will be able to fill you in on the intricacies of the process.

Even better, go again. This time, clean the sensor, lose the dark frames, dither between light frames and stack using a clipping algorithm. Siril is the best I've found for the latter. Then you'll really be able to see the StarTools magic:)

Cheers

 

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!

57 minutes ago, teoria_del_big_bang said:

Glad you got chance to try it out and it is back in use again.
The clouds were a bit of a pain up here as well, I didn't get any useful data as I was testing my new rotator which I still have some teething issues with and by about 2:00 am I gave up and packed it in.

Steve

Thank you! Hopefully them teething issues are sorted for our next clear night

34 minutes ago, david_taurus83 said:

I managed 3 minute subs on my 6D and Samyang 135 at f4 and ISO 1600. You need to ignore the histogram on the camera as it's measuring 8 bit values. The images might look bright on the camera but the raw images will be much darker when you process them. I used APT to capture and the 8bit histogram showed all my subs as right on the right hand edge.

Great first effort with this. The Heart has lots of Ha but its not as bright as the NAN for example so needs more subs. Keep at it though! Here's what 5 hours worth of 3 minute subs can do with the Samyang 135 and LP filter, and my light pollution was a lot worse than bortle 5!

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!

35 minutes ago, Clarkey said:

I think with a near full moon and bortle 5 with such a wide angle lens it will be challenging - but as you have proved not impossible. You could try and more restrictive filter which would help and as you say, more integration time. Personally for relatively dim targets I would aim for a good few hours if possible.

With regards to the background, much as I like Startools, I have found that it can make the background a bit 'messy'. This can be improved in the settings - I quite often use the manual develop rather than the autodev to avoid over-stretching the background. I also use APP to do a few minor tweaks before processing in Startools (not as per the recommended methods but it works for me and I keep the data virtually linear). However, at the end of the day, the better the data the better the end 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.

1 hour ago, iwols said:

 

 

thanks grant that makes sense thought it was me where do you recommend? cheers

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

21 hours ago, StuartT said:

why so much yellow glow then? Were you looking toward a city?

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!