Help with DSS

[Astronut1982]

Hey all,

I'm hoping someone can help because I'm getting rather frustrated!

Last night I was out until the small hours with my new SW 80ED DS pro apo taking some pics of DSO's & also some darks of the same temp, ISO & exposure for stacking. This was all fine but once I had gone to DSS to stack, the end product was black & white, very faint & very dissapointing pics.

I took 20 exposures at 30s & an ISO of 1600 of M31 & M33. They weren't the greatest but they did show some detail so I was gutted once I had stacked them as I had lost the little detail I had & could only see the cores. I was under the impression that when I stacked them, they would act like a much longer exposure & show even more detail than each individual pic.

Am I incorrect in thinking this or [much more likely!] have I overlooked something or made a mistake somewhere? Hopefully someone can point me in the right direction as the sky is clear all night so I hope to get some better pics tonight with the light pollution filter I bought today.

Cheers,

Jeff

[x6gas]

Hi Geoff,

Don't dispair! The data is there you just need to drag it out from the images...

DSS can take a bit of playing with. Have you been through one of the many online tutorials? If you have managed to align and stack all of the images then you probably just need to change the brightness and contrast and stretch the image a little.

It might help if you posted the settings you used in DSS (though in my experience it is quite good at suggesting the settings depending on your data...)

It'll be alright!

[blinky]

I suspect you may not have selected the correct camera in the settings - you need to tell it you have a canon DSLR.

[Astronut1982]

Hi Guys,

Thanks for the advice, I think I'm getting there.

Once I stacked them I went on to photoshop & played around & seemed to get there. They're not perfect but as they're my 1st intergalactic pics I'm pretty chuffed, I need to get M31 centred next time as it won't bring up the details near the edge but other than that I'm happy!

I've got a long learning curve ahead but with patience I'll get there.

Cheers,

Jeff

[x6gas]

Well done Jeff - glad you're getting there!

Worth playing with DSS a bit; looks confusing at first but you'll soon get the hang of it! Photoshop is another matter - reckon getting the best out of that is a lifetime's work!