Grant93

6 hours ago, KP82 said:

My first reaction when I saw this was that it was produced by a stock DSLR. Most emission nebulae are Ha heavy, so to make the most out of your limited exposure time you will need to astro mod your 800D.

When stacking always reject those subframes with irregular star shapes if you want perfect result. Keeping them in will only deteriorate the overall quality of your image.

Do you dither while guiding? Dithering helps remove walking noise in the image. Also un-cooled DSLRs have higher read noise and dark current than TEC cooled astro cam, so the result is always going to be a bit more noisy. When processing make sure multiple curves are streched little at a time and don't oversharpen or else the end result may be grainy and contain banding.

Yea a modded camera is something I've wanted.. Don't want to fork out the money for an Astro camera with a decent sized sensor, as I understand you have to spend above a grand for something with a decent sized sensor. But I am getting a modded camera this weekend, been reluctant to mod mine as I use it for daytime aswell.  But I am looking forward to being able to experiment more with HA targets, and can still use my 800D for reflection nebula. Not gotten into guiding yet, so I have not been able to dither. As usual tried starting this hobby as cheap as possible, now wanting more and more things, such as a guiding set up haha. But thank you for the advice!

5 hours ago, almcl said:

I *think* the double star issue at the top of the frame might go away if you delete all the text files in the folders which contain your lights for DSS and then try re-stacking.

I have had a go at your data using StarTools and agree with KP82 above: there's very little Ha signal.  Unfortunately there's also quite a lot of light pollution and a gradient which on a very quick run through I didn't eliminate.

Here's what came out:

 

Thanks for the effort! Its considerably better than mine But arent the text files created when stacking in DSS anyhow?

4 hours ago, Budgie1 said:

I had a quick go in PixInsight and I see what you mean about the stars at the top of he image.

I left some of them in the image because you have captured some nebulosity in the top right of the image from another part of the Veil.

The image isn't that noisy and I was able to stop any graininess with noise reduction. There is quite a large amount of, what may be light pollution, centre left which could be cropped out or dealt  with in other ways. I have also reduced the stars in this one, so the nebula stands out better.

As the others have said, the Veil is a predominantly Ha & OIII emission nebula so the red Ha will be difficult to pick up with a standard DLSR. It can be done with more data but you won't get anywhere near what you can see with a modified DSLR which has had the IR filter removed. You have good star colour and (apart from the top) the stars are nice and round. 

 

 

Thanks for that Didnt even notice the light pollution before cropping!

34 minutes ago, Clarkey said:

Just to add to what has already been said. 3hr 45m is not that long for a nebula. I took 4 1/2 hours with an astro camera (ASI1600mm pro) and my image was still noisy. I added another 6 hours data earlier in the week which made all the difference. I was doing narrowband which will help, but I think more integration time would really improve the SNR.

Have you uploaded it? I wanna see

Hello everyone.

Decided to try and image the western veil a couple of nights ago, got just under 4 hours of data. And I just cant seem to crack it. I feel all of my current photos to date have often been quite grainy, cropped and uncropped. From the Andromeda which was hardly cropped, to this, which is cropped more than I wanted to something unusual going on in DSS which I can't figure out.

First issue, the image DSS keeps producing has a lot of star trails at the top, but non at the bottom, this is being caused some how by the first nights data, as when I only stack the second night, this doesn't happen. But I don't wanna throw the data away, as I am trying to bring out as much nebulosity as possible, just to practice processing. I have scanned all through the first nights. But due to this I have had to crop it more than I wanted. I will upload the original TIFF so you can see for yourselves

Second issue is one I can't get away from on any picture, it always looks grainy, overprocessed, and just unrealistic, like a cartoon, not matter how much I seem to crop. How do I get away from this?

Anyhow here it is, Tell me what you think.

Around 3 hours and 45minutes Lights @ 45 seconds each @ 1600 ISO.

25 Flats

25 Dark Flats

40 Darks

40 Bias

EOS800D

ZS61

SGP

VEIL5.TIF

Hi there! Think I sorted the problem, today I pointed it straight up at the sky, rather than an angle, and no shadow at the bottom. Thanks for the reply though!

Hello there!

After taking some flats and stacking them to a set of data, its basically made the bottom of my picture super light, where the flat is super dark. Just wondering how I can amend this.

I do the T-shirt and daytime sky method, keeping the t shirt tight with one of my fiances hair bobbles! 😅

Thanks in advance!

IMG_1252.CR2

Definitely an impressive improvement from the first to the second attempt! I'd be well happy!

Looking nice!

What camera was this taken with? Working on the Witches Broom nebula myself last night and tonight, using a unmodded DSLR, so wondering if my results may be similar.

Such a great idea, Will definitely be trying this out on my next opportunity

12 hours ago, MKHACHFE said:

Stunning image mate. I personally think you can go a bit brighter in order to show more detail. Obviously it's down to personal taste.

Great work. Gorgeous.

Cheers

Thank you Gonna have another play with processing it on the weekend I think

19 hours ago, AstroNebulee said:

Beautiful image you have there 😍, if you wanted to stretch the inage more without blowing the core out you can use layer masking not sure if gimp has layer masking as I don't use it but it's what I do in photoshop with bright core subjects eg M13 here

Yes it does! I use layer masks for stars but for some reason never thought of using it for the core, good idea

11 hours ago, Tommohawk said:

Looks very nice - maybe a bit short of colour? But safer than being over-processed!

My thoughts exactly, I was hoping for more color, and if you stretch it enough it does come out, but so does more noise

20 minutes ago, Stargazer33 said:

Nice dust Lanes and a good size in the frame. I would have probably tried to rotate the frame to get Andromeda more across the diagonal. I think it would also benefit from lightening a little too. 

Very nice image all the same. 👍

Such simple but such brilliant advice I didnt know about, with a very very slight levels adjustment in GIMP and adjusting the white point, its brought out more detail, whilst still not revealing too much noise! I didnt want to stretch too much as to not overexpose the core. Cheers! Updated below

7 minutes ago, smashing said:

Nice, those dust lanes are coming through nicely!

How are you processing it? I think there is quite a bit in there (although my processing is poor compared to others)

Thank you! I start in startools, then as I'm not too good with the colors in startools, I do some RBG levels adjustment in GIMP, and also run their noise reduction to see if it improves it further

Hello everyone,

Been inactive for a while due to terribly cloudy skies. But finally a target is up more suitable to my setup that I can actually capture from my backyard, although many HA targets are up and visible from the backyard, my camera is stock (Will change in september when I purchase a modded camera , a decent astrodedicated is way way way out of my budget at the moment).  Although I feel that the target is still reasonbly low in the skies at the moment when I start imaging at 23:00, which I think is reflected in the photo. But it will glide across the zenith later in the year, which I will then target it again , for hopefully more exposure time also.

It's taken me a while, but I think I am happy with the finished product.

EOS 800D

iOptron Skyguider Pro

ZS61

Its 2 hours and 30 minutes worth of 45 second exposures.

20 Darks

40 Bias

20 Flats (First time using flats also, didnt know it was easy as a white t shirt, elastic band and pointing it towards the sky!)

Let me know what you think Critism always welcome!

Grant

12 hours ago, nephilim said:

@Grant93 Thanks mate, it was overtime that funded the build....a LOT of overtime 😂. I was buying a piece each month (Camera one month, Guidescope/Guidecam the next etc) In a way it was a good thing as I chopped & changed my mind constantly about how I wanted to go about it & gave me plenty of time to research & get it right first time.

I'm very pleased with the whole thing though & on cloudy nights I'm quite happy just putting it in the corner of the room & staring at it.....It will come as no surprise that I'm fairly recently single 😂😂😂😂 I've no time for anyone or anything else in my life now. Here's the setup in all its shiny glory 🤗

Steve

Seeing it makes me even more jealous! 😊

Such a nice first image 😃 Jealous of some of that set up! I'm the same with credit, never use it.. All my upgrades come from buying and selling, don't even like to fund this hobby with my day job 😅

Hello there!

Knowing I would have a clear night on Friday, I was preparing myself to image the whole Veil Nebula in Cygnus with my samyang 135mm. Sadly, after watching TV and getting up at half 4 every morning for work that week, I fell to sleep at about half 9 and woke up at half 11 (When I should of already been imaging!), So I got up, and with a slight rush I went out and set up, trying to find the Veil after setting up.

After a few frustrating test shots at different stars trying to find the right one, I came across the Sadr region, and as I didnt want to waste anymore time, I just thought, what the hell, Ill image this instead.

The shots looked good, surprising myself at how much HA the unmodded 800d was picking up, and almost clearly seeing IC1318 in a 60 second exposure. After seeing that, and googling other peoples un modded attempts, I was excited thinking it was going to be my best image yet! Sadly this wasn't the case, although I truly believe the data has potential, but my editting skills just don't. I've tried editting in both GIMP and startools multiple times. But I am struggling with the glow of the milky way, washing out half my picture and the crescent nebula area. In my best edit, which I will post, you can clearly see all of the nebula I was trying to pick up, but half of it is washed out. Advise on this will be greatly appreciated, on how to darken the glow of the milkyway without loosing data on the nebulas.

I also think flats would massively help, but still trying to find the right equipment to do this with. As always I will post my attempt, which was done in startools, and the TIFF incase anyone else would like to tackle this .

As always the details;

Canon 800D

iOptron Skyguider pro

Samyang 135mm

1 Hour and 30 Minutes of lights @ 60 second exposures.

25 Darks

25 Bias

sadr3rd.TIF

2 minutes ago, The Lazy Astronomer said:

Or Startools 😉

Woah! You posted this just as I am downloading the free trial hahahaha Must be fate

1 hour ago, alacant said:

Hi

Well captured. Some lovely colour and detail.

Cheers

 

Woah, I'm always amazed when someone else makes a brilliant image out of my captures. Shows I really have a lot to learn on processing! Maybe I should learn something along the lines of pixinsight or photoshop.

Cheers

Hello everyone!

Got another clear night on a Saturday last weekend. So I decided to try and capture some more data for my last attempt at the North american nebula, which was posted here not too long ago. First time I've tried to add data to a picture from more than 1 night, I would say it didnt go too successfully. I was using the Samyang 135mm, and when stacking the pictures all together, I noticed the outcome was insanely white. Even when saved to a TIFF when it gets even darker, it wasn't very dark, which I will also upload for everyone to see. So I think I over exposed the picture, the NA wasn't at the zenith, but it was very high when I started imaging, so I don't think its the surrounding bortle 5 light pollution that was the problem. I was shooting 90 second exposures which is the same exposure length as what I was adding to, at F2.8. Now I didnt take note last time at the F stop, stupid of me, so am I right by assuming I just had it open too wide?

If so, would it be better next time to shorten the exposures and have it wide open, or keep it at 90 seconds and find the sweet spot F stop (Seems to be the most I can get before trails, unguided)? The stack is only bright when I add last Saturdays shots, not my month old ones.

What I am pleased with is I feel its picked up far more structure of the Pelican and NA by stacking the combined 2 nights worth of data. And to be perfectly honest, I think the extra color just comes from me experimenting with saturation for the first time haha, not the extra data. But just to reiterate, I do believe the extra structure and density of the nebula is from the extra data.

I understand these sort of targets aren't great for unmodded, but what other bright HA targets are good to have a go at? And in comparison to the NA nebula, how bright are they?

Stock EOS 800D

iOptron Skyguider Pro

Samyang 135mm

800 ISO

2hrs of Lights @ 90 second exposures

30 Darks

30 Bias

No Flats (I want a sock I can pull over my lenses and rest a tablet on it, anyone know where to find one?)

Heres the new, heavily cropped as you will see from the TIFF the edges are terrible from my framing.

The old one which has been posted here before.

And the TIFF, feel free to experiment with it I know it terribly bright though!

Edit: Also one thing I forgot to mention, on the new picture, also not happy with them unusually blue stars! I feel the first attempt look more 'real'

na2ndtry.TIF

11 minutes ago, Scribblecrans said:

I can't believe this. I had it in my frame and I thought it was just stars so I passed by the shot... I remember literally looking at the camera screen and seeing that heart shaped start outline at the bottom.  Well I guess back to imaging...

Thanks a lot though!

Edit:

Haha no problem A lot of trials and errors for us new comers in astrophotography

Ignore this post, accidentally added when trying to edit old one.

3 hours ago, Whistlin Bob said:

Nice report Grant.

I sympathize in the local light pollution. I spotted on your profile that you're in Burton- if you're interested we have a good club on your doorstep: https://www.roslistonastronomy.org.uk/ 

The forestry centre is only a Bortle 4, but I've seen m101 there a few times including with an 8" dob. There are also lots of experienced observers to share the experience with. We're just getting back into the normality of regular observing sessions- you'd be very welcome to join us.

Thank you, that would be brilliant. I'll have to look into when the next meet up is Be nice to get advise off experienced people in person .

2 hours ago, Kon said:

Nice report and targets. It is always nice revisiting targets you have seen before since seeing conditions might be better. I am jealous since I have not had a single clear sky for the past 3 weeks.

 

Cheers! I think I have only had one in the past three weeks now

Hey there,

With a T2I and a ZS61, and me assuming that a T2i is a crop sensor, if you see deneb in your exposure, its a good chance you have missed the NA nebula anyway (Tordapending on rotation), this is just from my experience of a crop sensor eos 800d and ZS61. To frame up your ZS61 to NA Nebula, I'm not sure on the exact vocabulary to use so Ill try and explain it as best as I can. But in Cygnus's current position in the early night sky, Deneb is above Xi Cygni (Which it should be if I am assuming right, with you being in the Northern Hemisphere), You should frame XI Cygni right at the bottom of your shot, this way you will have all of the NA nebula in your shot, but you will not see Deneb.

Here is also an example of a single shot on my unmodified 800D, 90 seconds exposure in a bortle 5 sky, compared to 1 hours data (If I remember right), stretched A LOT. As you see, if you didnt know NA nebula was there in the single shot, you probably wouldnt see it at all.

The final image is cropped, the single exposure is uncropped, as you can see both Deneb and XI Cygni is visible, but this is because Im using a Samyang 135mm at the time, not my ZS61. I just put these there to show you even in a 90 second exposure NA Neb is basically invisible compared to the finished product. So when framing objects like this, you've got to look for the positions of the brighter stars and compare to other finished photos of the NA neb, kind of like old fashioned manual platesolving 😅.

Hope this helps,

Grant

On 02/07/2021 at 09:54, AstroMuni said:

@Grant93 Over and above the above recommendation, I would also recommend Kstars tool for planning your observations as it has the sky map and the planner all in one. See this link https://docs.kde.org/trunk5/en/kstars/kstars/tool-obsplanner.html

I use it from planning to scheduling and controlling my mount.

 

Ill check it out thank you! 😃

On 01/07/2021 at 02:57, nephilim said:

@Grant93  I  also highly recommend this.  https://telescopius.com/

Wow, I can't thank you enough for all that haha! That looks brilliant, will definitely be using that to plan my nights in future 😀 and referring back to this for instructions 😅

Hello there!

I know the feeling from my first night of trying to frame something, very frustrating burning away valuable imaging time just finding an object 😅 some people advise platesolving which is probably the best way, not got round to doing that myself so wouldn't be able to explain exactly how that works. Plenty of youtube videos on it I'm sure 😀

But I use a red dot finder myself, I find a bright star to focus on anyway, usually deneb or vega at the moment, you should know when these bright stars are on your cameras live view, compared to the less bright surrounding stars, whilst doing that I also align my Red dot finder to that star. That way when it comes to finding your object you just need to know where it lies relative to the stars, take a short exposure when you think you're about right, check and adjust accordingly, can usually get the object framed within 2-3 30 second exposures 😀

Hope this helps 😀

Grant

16 hours ago, wimvb said:

Very nice catch.

To improve this image, you should really take more exposures. The cluster is bright enough, so you probably don't need to use longer exposures, but do take more of them.

Dark frames don't always help if you have a dslr, only experimentation will tell. But flat frames are a must, especially if you want to try larger targets.

There are quite a few targets that fit your setup very nicely: the Andromeda galaxy (M31), the Pleiades (M45), the Beehive cluster (M44), the Orion nebula (M42), the Leo triplet of galaxies (M65, M66), etc.

The simplest way is to check with a field of view calculator, such as this one

https://astronomy.tools/calculators/field_of_view/

Thank you

I do want to take flat frames, just havent got round to getting the equipment for it, I could use my fiances tablet, just need one of them handy socks I see some people using.

I am really looking forward to shooting some of them targets you mentioned, just hope we have enough clear skies during the winter.

Just looked at the link you sent me, very handy tool, I will use this in future thank you

Grant