M51 and M13

[The Viper]

Both images are taken with a ed80 guided on heq5 with a canon 1000d,from a light polluted sky.ISO 800,M51 is 20x3m subs and 10x4m subs with darks only.M13 is 10x1m30s subs with darks only.

[Quatermass]

Very good you have caught the propeller in M13 really well. If you down load gradx free trial it will kill off the gradient in M51 for you.

[The Viper]

Thank you very much,i really need to start taking flats will these help with the gradient,im a relative newbie,so much to learn so little time under the stars,good old Scottish weather.Will check out gradx,thanks for the heads up

[Quatermass]

Flats darks and bias you must do them they will improve your images read the deepskystacker help files it exsplains it very well

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[Anweniel]

Great shots, shame about the LP its my biggest gripe too. You've defied it with these though very nice.

[ianaiken]

Very good, M13 is the best in my opinion, you've captured some nice colour too, something I am having trouble with.

Definitely get into taking flats, they make a big difference. If you have a tear down setup where you have to put it away each time, I recommend doing your flats the next day. I used to take off telescope and be careful not to knock the camera on the end of it or change focus. Basically means I could take my flats indoors the next day and not use up any imaging time outside in the brief time we have no clouds.

[The Viper]

Excellent idea,why didnt i think of that? I only have to move my scope a few feet when im paking away my gear.Can the same be done with darks and bias frames

[Gina]

Excellent M13 with nice propeller - M51 is pretty good too with the small amount of lights and no darks or flats etc.

Excellent idea,why didnt i think of that? I only have to move my scope a few feet when im paking away my gear.Can the same be done with darks and bias frames

Yes, it can. Best to take the darks just after the lights so that the temperature doesn't change much - you can leave software such as APT running unattended to capture your darks. That's what I do. Bias frames can be taken any time - temperature dosen't matter, exposure is the shortest your camera can manage.

[ianaiken]

Bias only need taking every 6 months or so. For Darks, as Gina said is ideal but where I live I can't leave anything unattended (i.e. go to bed) otherwise someone would have it. So I tend to shoot the darks either the day before or the day after, on the evening when the temp is around the same. This just requires the camera and laptop putting outside and letting it cool to the temp it was when you took the lights, as Gina states using APT you can then create your plan and leave it shooting away darks. You can build a good library of darks this way and not use up vital time for capturing lights or when you should be in bed sleeping. Plus it gives you something to do when its cloudy. By setting the delay between dark shots appropriately you can maintain consistency with your EXIF temp of the sensor (APT provides this info, and this is the temp you should match, not the air temp).

Hope this gives some ideas and helps.

[The Viper]

Thanks very much for the reply,sound advice.

[The Viper]

What should i be aiming for in regards to darks, flats and bias,how many ?