Beginners Dumbell

[evilgeenius]

So here's one of my first dumbells.

It's 18 x 30 seconds + 20 darks/flats. It was taken a few days ago when there was a small gap in the never-ending clouds. I just had to try out my recently purchased second hand modified 1000d. The light pollution was pretty bad that night, I think there might of been a wisp of clouds in the sky. I used a Neodymium filter.

I'm having real trouble getting my flats to work well, I think I'm not taking them right. For one, I took the flats the next day after I had dismantled the DSLR, so it wouldnt be in exactly the same position. but i still expected them to work better. I tried flats at all differnt shutter speeds but the gradient was never completely removed after stacking with DSS.

I used a trial of PixInSight to produce the above image, which I won't be able to afford after it's run out :-( I used the automatic background extraction feature to help me out and remove most of the gradients.

You would not believe how long I've spent working on this image in total, there have been many iterations and after each one I feel i've learned a bit more. This is probably the best iteration for star colour, but I think i've done other one's where the nebula looks better.

Any suggestions on how I can improve things are definately welcome! I'm slightly colour blind too, so don't hesitate to tell me that i've screwed them up. I have to keep checking the R/G/B levels to make sure I've not gone too far with my curves.

Cheers

Chris

Celestron CPC925, Modded 1000d, x0.6 focal reducer

[PH-R]

Great capture, you must be really pleased!

[evilgeenius]

Actually I think this is the one I meant to post :

Not sure though as i dido so many.

[Daniel-K]

thats a good image you should be pleased

[evilgeenius]

No problem, adjust away.

I found it quite hard to bring out the faint blue gasses of the nebula and keep the background quite dark.

[oldfruit]

Just starting out myself so nice to see some good images by another `beginner`.

[RogerTheDodger]

All I did was have a quick play with the levels in Gimp - I think you have a cracking image there

[ChrisEdu]

Nice, very nice!

[evilgeenius]

Rodger, I think I prefer an image somewhere inbetween yours and mine. Not too dark like mine, but not too bright with blown highlights like yours . Maybe something like this :

[evilgeenius]

It would be good If I could somehow smooth out the green and bluey blotches that are in the background of this image.

[RogerTheDodger]

Yep that looks better, I just wanted to show there was more there. Hopefully someone better at processing can help with the background.

[daz]

That's a great image EG!

One way to improve the image is more data, there is always room for more data! Either more subs, or (better) more subs at longer exposure.

Flats need to be taken BEFORE you dismantle the imaging train - you don't need to do them at the same temperature as the lights, so you could do them the next day, but trying to reassemble the train and do them simply won't work. And I'm sure you know, the flats should be 30-50% saturation of the camera

If you are not going to stick with PI, look at things like star layers (remove the stars, process the nebula, put the stars back) - there are tutorials in Tips/Tricks section I believe.

I'm not a DSS user so can't comment on how to get the best from that, but if you want, email me the raw TIF and I'll have a play (gives me an excuse to practice my PI skills!! )

[theodoros1978]

very nice process !

[evilgeenius]

Daz, I'm not sure what you mean when you say 30-50% saturation of the camera. How does that translate to camera settings and how I should be using the camera?

I'll send you the tif soon Daz.

Thanks for all replies!