Unstacked Lights - What should they look like ?

[SteveT]

Hi, had my first attempt at imaging yesterday on Equinox ED80 and Self modded 350D using APT.

My main question is that the images I took whilst experimenting (ignoring precise focussing) all looked 'very' over exposed and light salmon pink in colour. I took images at 30s 800/1600 iso and 60s at 800/1600 iso, I only took a dozen or so just so I could work on the process required and test my camera etc.

With all of the fantastic images posted here, I dont get to see what the untouched single subs look like to compare with? Should they look so overexposed or should they look dark ? And hence does all of the post processing make them nice and dark ?

I have 2 reasons why they may be 'pink' and that is i do have some light pollution in the vacinity but it is not massive and secondly, my camera includes a replacement Baader astro filter (in place of the IR/UV glass, which I smeared with silicon and cleaned - hopefully i didnt ruin it too much -could this be a problem ?) - I understand this will make the image redder (assuming no damage to filter) anyway ?

I just after some confidence that my camera is OK and that these exposure lengths should produce very light images or not ?

Thanks for your advice.

[Star Gazer]

Not sure I can help but 30sec at ISO 800 and your getting over exposure doesn't seem right to me. Either that or you have strong light pollution and or a very fast scope.

I suspect that most of the 'over exposure' is light pollution and that this can be easily processed out. For instance some of my subs are a lovely nice orange e.g.

A light pollution filter helps a lot here. (this is without a LP filter)

From a colour/exposure point of view you can still get a nice stacked image using the sub above - at least you can with PixInsight

My problem is removing the noise. As you can see it's horrible and no mater what I do nothing seems to reduce it significantly.

[lukebl]

They will be generally pink due to light pollution. You can reduce this considerably with a LP filter, and subsequent processing in Photoshop or similar will work wonders.

Here's an old single frame I took of M42, before and after processing in PS. Obviously, a stacked set rather than a single frame, plus some shorter subs to avoid burning the core, would be better. But I hope you get the idea.

[SteveT]

I will try and upload a sample of a 60min 800ISO sub when i get home just for comparison. I have had some success with CS5'ing it out to something half reasonable but i was shocked at how bright pink/orange the light was.

I have modded the camera with the Baader AP filter so maybe that makes it more reddish than without the filter, is it better without a filter at all ?

I dont have a lot of LP apart from one 'white' street lamp (new type) nearish to the scope but in the opposite direction and a very low power orange light from a neighbour but nothing too mad.

I have purchased a LP filter but waiting for it to arrive, where do i put it as I am DSLR prime focus imaging 2", the filter i bought was for 1.25" EP use i think,. do i need some sort of filter adaptor and a 2" filter as well for imaging ?

My next trip to the garden will be to practice how to get accurate focus as i didnt pay too much attention the first time as i just wanted to test the setup basics.

[Shibby]

There's a good thread on this here: http://stargazerslounge.com/imaging-discussion/149338-post-sub.html

[SteveT]

Thanks for pointing out that link that is exactly what I was looking for.

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