Alex E

the sort of clouds I like to see. lovely shot, those dust reflections are superb.

that's a superb result for first images, well done

love the delicate aspect of it, almost painted on. lovely

yeah agreed, pretty mind-blowing what one can achieve in their back yard nowadays

amazing shot

some superb shots there

So I decided to have another run at this as the last result just didn't sit right and I think ended up on a slightly better result - core looks better and the balance is better color-wise, managed to remove more of that left gradient and it just looks closer in color to the standard. At the very least it gave me a bit more practice with stretching and playing around with my curves. Detail-wise there's not much more there but I'm still happy with it until I get another clear night and more exposure time.

Thank you both for your replies, that's exactly the kind of information/advice I was looking for. I will be doing DSO imaging so I will definitely give NINA (which I'd similarly not heard of before) a try. I've found APT to be a pretty solid app overall, though to be fair I've only used a fraction of its features so far, but you are right Stuart, the interface is a bit clunky and awakward to use in some places. I shall see how I get along with the Sharpcap PA tool as well, I'm quite curious as to how it all works. So far (and we're talking two sessions so far only) I've just done manual PA using standard methods and phone app - and to be fair, I've not done horribly with it - but I'm guessing the PA tool should give me a much more precise alignment.

So to my very very beginner eye, these two pieces of software seem quite aligned (or competing on an even keel you could say) in terms of what they do and what they cost. Are there any opinions on which if any is the "better" overall, or has most features I guess? And more to the point, which would you recommend to someone starting out in astro-imaging and why. I've been using APT so far and it seems pretty good - I've particularly enjoyed the Bahtinov focus assist tool, but I'd be curious to know if there are any points where Sharpcap would provide an advantage - such as polar aligning maybe?

Scratch that, found it on their website, I'm a dumbass.

TS-Optics used to make a right-angle adapter for the polar finder on the Star Adventurer Pro but it seems to have been discontinued as it's out of stock everywhere - ie: https://smile.amazon.co.uk/TS-Optics-SkyWatcher-Celestron-comfortable-PFZS/dp/B01DIOPWCU Anyone have any idea whether there are any other options, where I might find one of the above or am I stuck bending my neck at un-natural angles every session?

Right I think I managed to get the greenish tinge out so I shall leave it here and return with other (mis)adventures and questions when clear skies avail next. Thank you everyone for your input.

My ClearOutside says it's going to go dark after 8PM today unfortunately, but not sure if that's just the coastal weather out here and Canterbury might be spared. Are there any local AP groups/gatherings that sort of thing? Big up indeed

Thanks for the suggestions, very much appreciated, it's a learning curve but it's also great fun. I did have darks and flats for the second session, but I saw some variable horizontal banding on my flats when I looked at them this morning so I think I need to work a bit more on taking good flats as, like you say, that's much preferred to synthetic methods of removing vignetting and other gradients.

There we go, we're at 17/17/16 now.

Yeah so quite obviously I am still learning the processing bits and have fiddled with the Astronomy Tools action set for PS CS on it. There's a few things in the that I ran based on a checklist from astrobackyard, but again, lots of the stuff I'm doing is half guesswork half bits picked up from various places. I'm guessing there isn't a pre-set list of things you would go through since different DSOs would require different processing but do you have any preferred guides or how-tos in terms of processing post-stacking? I reduced the red channel down once but I'm guessing it needs a bit more.

Right so on above solid advice (thank you!), here's a revised version of session 2. Obviously some shorter exposures to use for the core masking would probably be far better but I think I was able to tone it down decently by just masking with the original stacked image for the core region. Resolved the clipping as well and of course some more lovely detail is visible now. Flipped for better perspective.

Absolutely agreed on the core, I might have another go at it to see if I can even that out, but I might need to layer mask some shorter exposures on my next go at it as it does look overexposed in the lights. Also, appreciate the comment on the background, you're absolutely right there as well, I need to learn to pay more attention to the histogram. Working on sorting that out now.

So I promised I'd come back with something, here I am. The two shots below are my first two experiences with astrophotography. I was happy but a little bit underwhelmed with my first one (as often happens I guess).. and then I gathered more light or my second and boy was I mindblown when I finished processing the result. Some first lessons learned: - take dark/flats/etc - some star trailing in the second session which I only saw when I started processing so I think I need to polar align more precisely and pay more attention to test shots - probably need to get balancing figured out a bit more, not sure if that was the cause for the above - get my tripod anchored down (I shoot on wooden decking so not exactly the most stable and vibration free surface though I expect at this level not a massive issue yet) - I need to either buy a right-angle viewfinder for the polar scope OR a new neck - spotting scope and guided tracking at some point when I can afford more expense would be _very_ nice Equipment: William Optics Redcat 51 APO, Canon EOS 700D, SkyWatcher Star Adventurer Pro Software: APT, Topaz DeNoise AI, Adobe Photoshop CS, DeepSkyStacker First session - 20 x 30s lights (17 used), no flats/darks/bias, no noise removal Second session - 30 x 2min lights (23 used), 15 darks / 50 flats / 100 bias

I'll be starting off with wide-field deep-sky. I've gone for the WO Redcat 51 mainly because I've read/seen good things about it and being super lightweight it'll allow me to dabble in some daylight photography with it as well which I hope will keep me going whilst skies aren't suitable for anything astronomical. I am still trying to figure out the mount part. Instinctively I wanted a GoTo Eq mount but of course I am limiting my budget at this point so the options were fairly few there and unfortunately none of them in stock anywhere soon. I might divert back to the Skywatcher Star Adventurer which I've read good thing about but of course is only a tracker rather than a GoTo. I reckon it's probably in a way a good idea no to get a GoTo as it'll force me to get to know the night sky a bit more. I still remember all the biggies but I have also forgotten a lot. Other than that I plan to shoot on an modded SLR to start with (either a 600 or 700D probably) and if the bug catches on, maybe invest in a ZWO later on, which I've seen fantastic results from but of course is a more sizeable investment. I do have some interest in solar observation as well, but I haven't even begun to look at what would be needed to be able to do that safely with my current planned setup. Btw if anyone has off the top suggestions for a reasonably priced (~100 quid and under) decent tripod that I might match with the Star Adventurer, it would be most welcome.

Hello everyone, Long time passion for astronomy/space/science, just getting on the road to building a starter astrophotography set to play around with now because well.. no time like the present. I'm down in Whitstable in East Kent (UK), so Bortle 5 from the backyard with access to Bortle 4 nearby, but that's pretty much as good as it gets. Weather..well.. coastline so it's basically weather by the hour but where there's a will there's a way. Looking forward to chatting to and learning lots of things from the very experienced people of SGL and hopefully one day I'll share some shots I can be proud of.