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Help with processing M42 please.

sanmatt

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sanmatt

sanmatt

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Met up with Melsky and a couple of others last and night and set about capturing the Orion Nebula.

I have abut 104 images of 3second exposure, ISO1600, stacked in DSS.

The stacked image if very light grey. Should it look like that to begin with?

And now I have no idea what to do? I'm trying to save it but it wants to save as a tiff?

Can anyone help please? (I dont have PS btw)

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sanmatt

sanmatt

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Hi Rob,

Thanks. To save it offers me: TIFF or FITS both 16 and 32.

I used a NIkon D90, and I'm not sure of the lens, it belonged to Mel.

I can't quite work out how to save it and then upload it to photobucket to show here.

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JimStan

JimStan

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There is a forum devoted to Deep Sky Stacker, and you can get LOTS of answers to your questions by joining up there.

First off, I would say that only three seconds per exposure is really handicapping what you are likely to see in your final subs. Even if you are using an static tripod, you could probably go for something like 20-30 seconds per exposure, and end up with more useable data.

BTW, there is a program called "FitsWork" that will work with .tif formatted files. But as I recall, you do have the choice to save files in either .tif or .fts format. It's been too long since I worked with the program , I have to get back to it !

Good luck! Jim S.

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Specman

Specman

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Met up with Melsky and a couple of others last and night and set about capturing the Orion Nebula.

I have abut 104 images of 3second exposure, ISO1600, stacked in DSS.

The stacked image if very light grey. Should it look like that to begin with?

And now I have no idea what to do? I'm trying to save it but it wants to save as a tiff?

Can anyone help please? (I dont have PS btw)

Hi,

Firstly, I don't know what equipment you are using but 3 second exposure is pretty limited. my image of Orion is not great but I got 37 frames for 60sec and used ISO800. I'm looking at nextime using ISO400 and 2-4 minutes exposure. Next time take less pics and more exposure.

Tiff is a good file to work and save it in, once converted to .jpg a lot of data will be lost. Don't try processing an image as a .jpg, it looks nasty.

When seen with the naked eye through a telescope Orion is grey, after 20 sec exposure or so the colours start to emerge. the camera see's far more than the human eye can.

If you don't have Photoshop, try GIMP. It's FREE!

GIMP - Downloads

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RobH

RobH

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Specman is correct...don't process the image in anything other than 16 bit mode, and save as a tiff....it's only for posting that it needs to be 8 bit jpeg or a similar format.

I agree with the previous comments regarding sub length. In addition to what has already been said.if the subs are too short then system noise (electronics etc) will be a significant part of the image, so you need to expose long enough to overcome this. This type of noise is known as 'read noise' and all cameras have it.

Cheers

Rob

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sanmatt

sanmatt

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Well Im feeling a bit better today so let me try and explain what Im on about.

Out with Mel and the others the night he advised me to shoot at 3s exposures @ ISO 1600, because my motor is kaput and so I cant track. So that's why the short exposure time.

Ok so with DSS Im now having problems. In my impatience I just pressed 'stack', I didnt knw to use mosaic/drizzle or to press 'register', I just went racing ahead. I've now foudn this

My Quick DeepSkyStacker Tutorial Flintstone Stargazing

and following that I decided to re stack the images doing as the instructions asked. Only now, it gets so far through registering then a message box pops up saying 'out of memory' but doesnt give any info so I have to close it and restart it. Three times I've tried to do it so far.

Any ideas? Cos I'm very stuck now.

Thanks Sandra

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RobH

RobH

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mmm. You have shot the whole of Orion not M42 I see. You will have difficulty getting any colour out of that I'm afraid. What scope and camera were you using?

I don't agree....there's plenty of colour there once you've removed the light pollution. It's already visible on some of the stars.

One thing you need to do is stop down your lens aperture as it's causing the stars around the edges to become elongated in a radial fashion around the centre.

Rob.

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sanmatt

sanmatt

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wow really? Thank you very much! I wasnt sure how much to move the channel sliders so just nudged them a bit. I trully have no idea what I'm doing.

The image is really out of focus though isnt it?

Should I be fairly pleased? Actually sod it, yes I am pleased, it's in space, tiny and I managed to get something - I am happy with my efforts.

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NickK

NickK

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With 104 images, and if your machine has enough RAM (at least 8GB), I'd be tempted to use a drizzle algorithm to register (align the image with the centre of the stars) and stack at a 4x or 8x upscaled image. It may take a few days of solid processing!

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NickK

NickK

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Sorry Nick but I have no idea what you just said!

I did cliock something about drizzle and mosaic when I tried to /register/stack, but I kept getting an 'out of memory' error so just did a quick stack in the end.

Drizzle (ie roughly the same as I described) requires quite a bit of memory.

I wrote my own routine and with 8GB it took the best part of 24 hours with 17MB images, in reality it needs 16GB..

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ollypenrice

ollypenrice

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To get closer in you need a longer focal length lens. This really means a telescope... and for that to work you need a mount which tracks the sky very accurately.

You are now poised perilously at the top of a vertiginous and icy slope leading via exasperation, fleeting moments of sublime joy and long spells of bleak despair to... bankruptcy.

It's called astrophotography: you'll love it!

Olly

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