NGC 6992

[Mik3]

This is my 2nd attempt at astrophotography, I'm very pleased with the results. I managed to get 8m worth of data 100s exposure this time. Lots of noise, I never got enough darks I think?

[Simms]

lots of detail in there - colour could do with some balancing, but for a 2nd attempt this is really rather good.

[Manny]

I also think that this second attempt is quit good. Keep going

[Mik3]

By colour balancing do you mean the colour sliders in DSS? Is there too much blue in there? I'm still learning and there's so much to take in. Thanks for your input.

[Simms]

With DSS I`d say try to balance by bringing all 3 colour channels together (in my experience this is a good place to start) - then maybe drop the saturation down a bit, around +18% give a `natural` look. Then once exported use Photoshop, or ELements or GIMP to fine tune the image - but don`t worry about that at the moment - I`m still very new to this so take everything I say with a large pinch of Sodium Chloride.

[Mik3]

I tried processing again and I think its much better now. hopefully I can get alot more data next time.

[Tom OD]

You're doing really well for a second attempt, great stuff. There are some black centers to some of your stars at the bottom of the pic. Was that from processing?

Tom.

[RobH]

That's a good capture....as you say, it needs a lot more data to get the noise down.

Your first image is far better than the second....you've used too much noise reduction and have lost detail, and something very odd has happened with all the black artifacts in the lower part.

I copied your first image into photoshop and balanced up the background, then ran Gradient Xterminator on it once on a low setting, and then applied a very small amout of noise reduction...no stretching with curves or levels.

Get some more data for this and you'll end up with a fine image

Rob

[MikeD]

Great stuff.

Like Rob said hold back on the noise reduction, a little noise in an image looks better than an over smoothed image.

Looking forward to more from you.

Mike.

[Mik3]

Black centers was propably from processing as I havent got a clue what I'm doing I'm trying to follow guides but its alot to take in.

Thanks RobH thats much better.