First Light Modded 1100D - M51

[pel]

Wow! It's all about the processing isn't it.

[Gina]

Ive had another bash over lunch. Not anywhere near as good as Quartermass (sigh...so much to learn in this hobby!), but better than my previous

WOW!! That's much better than I've achieved - lovely

[Gina]

What's the cause of all the stars looking like they are illuminated from the bottom left of the image and appearing as a 'phase'? Is that a collimation issue because it's something I've noticed on some of my pictures.

I think it's due to poorish PA. The scope is a frac - Evostar 80 ED DS Pro.

[Gina]

Here's another go.

[Gina]

Just taken a pile of flats and also removed several duff M51 lights which might well have caused the strange framing effect. Now running DSS again with good lights, darks and flats.

[Gina]

That looks much better Here's the image from DSS just converted to JPEG and scaled to post here.

[Gina]

I've uploaded the TIFF file to filehosting.org - here's the link :-

filehosting.org - download page for M51-2012-04-11-2.TIF

[spaceboy]

Looking good to me Gina. The other members processing sure dose go to show how much gimp, PS and the like can improve an image.

[Zakalwe]

Thats a massive improvement Gina

[Gina]

Looking good to me Gina. The other members processing sure dose go to show how much gimp, PS and the like can improve an image.

Thank you And yes it does - I hope to get to that standard in time

[Gina]

Thats a massive improvement Gina

Thank you I'm pleased with it. Dumping rogue subs and adding darks and flats certainly helped.

[Zakalwe]

Another quick and dirty process Gina.

Your second stack was much higher quality...someone with more talent than me can easily surpass this process.

2 passes of Gradient Xterminator

Levels and curves adjustment layers

High pass filter applied as layer mask

Another tweak of curves.

Enhance star colour by copying stars to new layer, boost saturation, gaussian blur and then blend using Colour

A spot of match Colour.

Star spikes chucked into the mix with Carbonis Actions

I hope you like it and you think that I have done it some justice

[Gina]

That's lovely Zak I need more practice at post processing. But I think I'm getter better with DSS. Getting more used to it now. There are a lot more options I haven't tried yet though.

[Chris]

Some lovely renditions of your data going on here Gina, QM's and Zakalwe's last attempts are fab:) My two pence worth of advice is to try using 2xtimes Drizzle in DSS, this works especially well when stacking lots of subs, its usefull for bringing out fine detail on small objects. It uses a lot of processing power though so its best to use the rectangle function in DSS and apply it to a reference frame to the size that you intend to crop the image:)

[Spikey]

Couldn't get the tiff so I had a five minute play with the jpeg.

Not as much to work on with the jpeg but here you go.

[Gina]

Some lovely renditions of your data going on here Gina, QM's and Zakalwe's last attempts are fab:) My two pence worth of advice is to try using 2xtimes Drizzle in DSS, this works especially well when stacking lots of subs, its usefull for bringing out fine detail on small objects. It uses a lot of processing power though so its best to use the rectangle function in DSS and apply it to a reference frame to the size that you intend to crop the image:)

Thank you for the suggestion - I'll try that

[Gina]

Couldn't get the tiff so I had a five minute play with the jpeg.

Not as much to work on with the jpeg but here you go.

[ATTACH]84968[/ATTACH]

Thank you Wonder what's the matter with the TIFF. I'll try downloading it and see.

[carastro]

Looks promising Gina.

I was just wondering why the subs were so short, are you not guiding yet? If not I suggest you try to get going on this as you really need 5min subs at 800 ISO to get the best out of your efforts.

I'll give the procesing a "go".

Carole

[Gina]

Thanks Carole I've only had one short go at guiding but since then I've only had one and a half nights clear enough to do anything and I concentrated on getting images having had weeks of cloudy mights.

I think the weakest link in my efforts is the processing and I need more practice with that. When we do get the odd clear night I intend to get guiding working - I have the equipment ready to do it. I also want to do a drift PA as I know my PA is a bit out.

[spaceboy]

Well looking at the processed images I be a very happy with those results given the time scale you have achieved them in Gina. I can only imagine the images you will be presenting us with this time next year. (if we have any clear night between now and then that is )

[carastro]

I've had a go at processing this, but I took a large crop to eliminate most of the overlapping frames. I also processed out the artifacts (the green hot pixel line and the line at 7pm of the galaxy ? a short burst of a plane/shooting star or cosmic ray). This is the best I can do and considering the length of subs it's a pretty good image all in all, I like your process posted at 8.54 Gina.

Also I am sure with your technical skills Gina you'll have guiding sorted in no time. You'll find it will make a huge difference.

[Gina]

Well looking at the processed images I be a very happy with those results given the time scale you have achieved them in Gina. I can only imagine the images you will be presenting us with this time next year. (if we have any clear night between now and then that is )

Yes, with the better processing I am quite satisfied at this early stage

[Gina]

I've had a go at processing this, but I took a large crop to eliminate most of the overlapping frames. I also processed out the artifacts (the green hot pixel line and the line at 7pm of the galaxy ? a short burst of a plane/shooting star or cosmic ray). This is the best I can do and considering the length of subs it's a pretty good image all in all, I like your process posted at 8.54 Gina.

Thank you The newest stack is without the duff frames I included by mistake first time and also includes darks and flats and is much better.

Also I am sure with your technical skills Gina you'll have guiding sorted in no time. You'll find it will make a huge difference.

I did have guiding working briefly before with the finder scope and QHY5 - it should be better with the ST80. It lost the guide star last time.

[carastro]

The newest stack is without the duff frames

Is there a link to this, or have I missed it?

Carole

[Quatermass]

That last stacked version is a massive improvement Gina and good to see all the frames looking much nicer now, when you start getting to grips with the processing side of things and your guiding you will be leaping ahead I am hoping tonight we get some clear skies as I am itching to try out my focal reducer.