Jump to content

Banner.jpg.b89429c566825f6ab32bcafbada449c9.jpg

First attempt at M101

Quatermass

By Quatermass
in Imaging - Deep Sky

Recommended Posts

Quatermass

Quatermass

Posted
Posted

Took this last night in what I thought was very bad not worth it conditions bright moon and right over where the town lights blaze and the neighbours kitchen light blaring away till gone 1 am. But I thought what the heck might as well give it a go and had a look for it. After a few snaps with the canon 350d I saw it for the first time. It was getting late so decided to take 24 shots ISO 1600 80seconds each. Got up today and stacked it adding master darks flat and bias offsets from my m81 m82 previous night.

This was the stack and below that what I got out of it. Very surprised and looking forward to getting this in a nice dark sky for a second attempt.

If your interested I have produced a series of 13 tutorials on my blog on Photoshop editing as well :)

Stacked image

M101%252520stacked.JPG

Final image after processing in photoshop

M101.JPG

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Quatermass

Quatermass

Posted
  • Author
Posted

Lol :):D yes I did use the fishing brolly but it was quite windy and it kept blowing over so going to have to come up with some ingenuis way of keeping it in place. Thinking of making a set of panels that slot together and provide me with a nice box to surround me.. I think that would be called a Quatermass observatory box :)

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Zakalwe

Zakalwe

Posted
Posted
Wow!! I haven't seen a galaxy sub yet that showed so little (nothing!!) being turned into so much after stacking and processing!

I envy you your skills!!! Bet you're pleased!

/Jesper

Whats even more impressive is that that image was the stacked one!!!

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Quatermass

Quatermass

Posted
  • Author
Posted

I started with what was a pretty dire result from the stacking process but using the methods outlined in my tutorials managed to get my final image. First of all I used Levels and made sure to get the histogram colours lined up. Then when I had got a reasonable amount of stretching done went into curves. Curves is the main thing here tweaking fine little details to bring out as much as possible.

After curves was done there was horrible gradients to deal with followed by nasty little blotches or doughnuts as they are known. This was dealt with by using the clone stamp tool. After all that lot I went on to using the hide all layer mask to correct colours and tonal errors. Still not done, next was using the unsharp mask star layers and the high pass filters on the dust lanes. That lot done a few more little tweaks on the hue and saturation and it was looking much better. I have spent the last year honing my photoshop skills so the set of tutorials covers all that and more. If your struggling like I did with editing in photoshop I hope my tutorials will ease your pain, certainly makes those nights when you cant get much worth while.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Quatermass

Quatermass

Posted
  • Author
Posted

Your most welcome MM its great being able to share what we learn on this forum with others. I love seeing the fantastic images that everyone produces on here but the learning process is great fun as well.

Photoshop is capable of producing some great results but there are many ways of doing things in it. I set about writing up a note book last year of all the tutorials I could find and different methods people were using then after practising them and refining them decided it was time to do the tutorial set. Its great fun doing the tutorials as well. Since I have been doing this I have learned a great deal and feel that there are so many things out there I could be imaging now that I'm spoiled for choice. However with Christmas coming I'm beginning to crave a new telescope mount.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Quatermass

Quatermass

Posted
  • Author
Posted
Wow that is amazing. I can't wait until I can produce something like that.

Last year I would have laughed at any one telling me I could do what Im doing now but its really not that hard even with my basic set up. The hard bit is being out there in the cold winter nights but once the bug bites that doesnt matter, I just wrap up really warm and get out there! :)

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Quatermass

Quatermass

Posted
  • Author
Posted

Thank you Carol, each night is surprizing. I had a try at ngc1499 this evening forget it that nebula is massive the thought of doing a mosiac on that just plain scares me. Still it was fun finding out more about it :)

Sent from my GT-S5670 using Tapatalk

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

Go to topic listing

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

We have placed cookies on your device to help make this website better. You can adjust your cookie settings, otherwise we'll assume you're okay to continue. By using this site, you agree to our Terms of Use.