reassurance needed

[pixueto]

Just started taking pictures with my canon 350D. I am a completely novice and I started with M31 because it was easy to find and quite high up in the sky –but not sure it was a good choice any more! Got about 1 hour and 7 mins stacked in DDS and this is what I got. Not sure about what I am doing, though. Does this look like a valid picture to work with in Photoshop? The image came out of DSS with the RGB showing curves in different parts of the histogram for each colour –I read somewhere that this is due to light pollution in my area. I aligned them in DSS and changed the luminance settings as the programme tutorial says. I would really appreciate if someone could tell me if I am doing things right or, if not, show me the right direction. Thank you very much

[Daniel-K]

you have dust lanes there just need to use ps to bring them out what scope and exposure times was you using?

[pixueto]

I’m imaging on a budget: SW200P Eq5. 1’ and 30’’ subs, 3 darks and 3 bias

[Daniel-K]

unless you have poor lp in your area you should have a better picture then that mybe try just stacking the light frames the m31 in my profile is just lights no darks or anything and thats from a lp sky.

[pixueto]

Canon 350D. Yes, unfortunately I have bad LP. Should I take lots of subs then?

[Daniel-K]

the more the better but you should still get a good data to work with. it looks like its a bit green. have got the rgb background callibraton box ticked in dss? its under stacking parameters in the light tab

[pixueto]

I don’t remember doing that but I tampered with the luminance curve. When I stuck the subs, the R, G and blue histograms are in different parts of the x axis. I put then together manually in DSS. Is that OK?

[Daniel-K]

yes and put them at the bottom of the curve too

[Carl M]

I think the data is there its just not been stretched out yet. That's how it will look like without levels and curves being adjusting in Photoshop or GIMP.

[Quatermass]

Pix you have the same set up as me a 200p and Eq5 with a canon camera. Read my blog and take a look at my photoshop tutorials to see what you can do with that gear hopefully it will be of some help to you. Using the high pass filter on galaxys works well to bring out dust lanes.

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[Quatermass]

By the way your m31 looks just like my first one of this target. My blog traked the progress i made with m31 its a great subject but one you will go back to again and again getting better each time.

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[pixueto]

Thanks quartermass, I’m on it. Just finished with histograms and curves and I understand how they work. Last weekend was my first time taken subs for DSO’s. Just wandering if I’m doing things right. By the way, it took me a while realising that I must put the R, G and B histograms together in DSS. Maybe you should mention that in your blog.

[Quatermass]

Try the Orion Nebula rather then m31 30 shots at an ISo of 800 at 50 Seconds each and a few at 20 second for the core plus 20 darks flats and bias offsets will give you a good result to have fun processing all in the blog as well

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[pixueto]

It’s funny that you mention M42. When I finished with Andromeda, I took 5 subs, 1 min each just to see how they would look like. When I went to DSS I realised that most of them had poor quality so I only managed to stuck 2. Ithis is the picture that came out of DSS. 2 subs, 1 min each + 3 bias&3darks and it hasn’t been stretched with PS!

[Quatermass]

Getting that in photoshop and balancing out the rgb channels in levels then curves will soon sort that out. More subs needed darks flats and bias 30 is a good average better make the most of orion while its still there though

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[Quatermass]

I leave the rgb in dss and fix that in photo shop instead its better equiped for the job then dss I find. My main problem now is getting a guided system set up but wont be long.

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[pixueto]

What guide scope are you going to use? With an 8’’ OTA on a EQ5 your scope is quite heavy isn’t it?

[JimStan]

You guys are being great teachers ! I am so tempted to just jump in and process the images and show him what they SHOULD look like !

He is well on his way to producing some fine images !

Jim S.

[pixueto]

You guys are being great teachers ! I am so tempted to just jump in and process the images and show him what they SHOULD look like !

He is well on his way to producing some fine images !

Jim S.

Please feel free to do so. Only thing is that i don't know how to upload the Tiff file here. Seems to large for the system to cope with it.

[pixueto]

This is what I got after stretching it a bit with PS and following quartermass' advice about using a high pass filter (which I had to learn to use). I'm attaching too the file that came out of DSS. Comments wellcome. It doesn't look right, does it? Too bright a picture I think. Any suggestions, problems you can see? If I'm making any gross mistakes remember this is my very first DSO! 1 Hour, 7 mins subs, 1' and 30'' exposures with 3 darks and 3 bias. Thanks

[Quatermass]

Bear in mind the size of the andromeda galaxy its massive you only have half of it there and I think thats really good. To get all of it in a scope like an ed80 refractor would be better. Or if you like to indure a massive headach try doing a mosiac of it all that was fun.

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[Daniel-K]

lots of detail in there

[pixueto]

Bear in mind the size of the andromeda galaxy its massive you only have half of it there and I think thats really good. To get all of it in a scope like an ed80 refractor would be better. Or if you like to indure a massive headach try doing a mosiac of it all that was fun.

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The high pass filter, as well as showing the dust lines, it also pushed the histogram to the right, allowing me to do further processing. That was something I didn't expect and I don't understand well why that happened.

This is just over an hour total exposure. The really good pictures of M31 I've seen were most of them over two hours. I'm hoping to improve it if I get another hour's data.

I took the subs last weekend with very good weather conditions; it was really cold and no breeze at all. I would imaging that it helped.

[pixueto]

lots of detail in there

Thanks Melibum. Don't you think that the picture lacks colour? It looks more like a black and white one. Is this right? If not, any idea how I can improve it?

[pixueto]

Bear in mind the size of the andromeda galaxy its massive you only have half of it there and I think thats really good. To get all of it in a scope like an ed80 refractor would be better. Or if you like to indure a massive headach try doing a mosiac of it all that was fun.

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Maybe if I had position the camera right, I would have been able to frame it all but... Well if I told you that very same weekend, I spent nearly two hours in freezing cold imaging the flame and horsehead nebula just to find out during processing that I took photos of the area north of the flame! I would have been better of spending time with M42!