Dumbell Nebula (M27)

[Andyfx]

Took this unguided image last night using my unmodded Canon Eos 1100d with cheapy Skywatcher LP filter.

Lights: 19 x 120 sec @ ISO800

Darks: 10

Flats: 10

Bias: 10

[Andyfx]

Re-processed the above as I wasn't happy with it:

[nytecam]

Very Nice image [#2!] well done - keep up the good work

[Andyfx]

Thanks nytecam, I'm new to imaging so still playing with Photoshop and getting used to my new kit. Looks like you have some pretty impressive equipment there!

[Gina]

Great start - bet there's plenty of detail to drag out there with PS PS takes a bit of learning but is very powerful and there lots you can do with it.

[Andyfx]

Thanks Gina this is only my second attempt at imaging so have an awful lot to learn. I've got to grips with my new kit now, so will be trawling for information on Photoshop techniques now. I would like to mention that it's people like yourself, Starfox and Quartermass that are inspiring to us noobs.

[Gina]

A big welcome to the land of DSO imaging then It takes plenty of patience and a few failures but it's extremely satisfying to watch the detail come out of a faint fuzzy. Good luck

[Andyfx]

Thanks Gina, do you know of any good PS guides? Btw how are you finding your ed80, are you using it as your primary imaging scope? I picked up my INED70 new for £270 and am very happy with it :-)

[Ewan]

Hi Andyfix, nice shot up there, a tip for sharpening up the focus, works really well on stars, load your piccy into PS, right click the picture probably names 'background' then select 'duplicate layer' (you can name this focus if tyou like), then goto Filter - Other - High Pass - select about 4-6 on the slider bar then ok, got back to the main pain where your picture & background copy (focus layer) is listed & just above it a button will say 'NORMAL' , make sure your focus layer is selected & click OVERLAY, now if you click the visibility (eye icon) button next to the focus layer you will see the effect applied on & off to the main picture, if you are happy with it RIGHT click the duplicate layer you made & select Flatten Image which it will then merge both pics together.

Hope this may help you & others.

I am still learning CS6 PS myself & imaging but it's quite a handy feature.

Good luck for your next clear night :-)

[Andyfx]

Hey Ewan, thanks very much for the heads up! I've not seen mention of this in any Photoshop guides i've read so far, and thought there must be something like this lurking somewhere amongst all the other functions and buttons lol :-D

Am at work till this evening but will re-stack and try it out when i get back. Need to try this on my subs of m57 too.

Thanks again!

[squeaky]

It would be worth looking through your subs "by hand", so to speak, and setting aside any below par before stacking.

If you still get elongated stars in your final image the following video shows how to sort things out...

[Andyfx]

Thanks squeaky that's definately worth a look too. I find all of the post processing fascinating, it's great seeing what detail emerges from an image.

[Gina]

Thanks Gina, do you know of any good PS guides? Btw how are you finding your ed80, are you using it as your primary imaging scope? I picked up my INED70 new for £270 and am very happy with it :-)

There are a number of PS guides mentioned in this forum including some excellent ones by Quatermas. I love my ED80 - it's a suberb scope Yes it is my primary imaging scope. In fact my only one. I have an ST80 for guiding and use another 1100D camera with prime lenses for wide-field DSO imaging. I have some lenses from my film days that I used with my Pentax Spotmatic SLR including the standard 55mm f1.8 lens, 35mm f3.5 wide angle and 135mm f2.8 telephoto. Ordinary photographic lenses suffer from chromatic aberration when used for full spectrum astro imaging so I'm going for narrow band as and when funds permit. I already have an Astronomik 12nm Ha clip filter and plan to add OIII ans SII in time.

[Gina]

It would be worth looking through your subs "by hand", so to speak, and setting aside any below par before stacking.

If you still get elongated stars in your final image the following video shows how to sort things out...

Useful tutorial, thank you

[Chris]

Thats great for only your second image Andy:) Well done! I see your upto 2 minute subs already which is good to see, you can have a lot of fun with 2 minute subs. I too go through all my subs manually to chuck out the ones I'm not happy with then I set DSS to use 100% of the ones I keep. I find the 2xDrizzle tool in DSS useful for bringing out extra detail on small objects, and I use very small adjustments at a time with levels and curves slow and steady wins the race:) I've still got a million and one things to learn myself so I'm very flattered that I'm one of the ones that have inspired you:D

[squeaky]

Thanks squeaky that's definately worth a look too. I find all of the post processing fascinating, it's great seeing what detail emerges from an image.

More homework... I found these two videos helpful as well:

And other tutorial links:

Astro Imaging - Basics

===================

http://www.eprisephoto.com/basics-new

Mark's tutorials

=====================

http://www.youtube.c...lewoodle&page=1

[squeaky]

Had to split this, so the rest...

Using Registax

===============

http://www.sunspot51...6/Registax6.htm

http://stargazerslou...m-tutorial.html

Using Deep Sky Stacker

=======================

[steppenwolf]

I like this M27 image but even more, I love that little chain of stars running through the two bright stars at '4 o'clock' - not noticed them before but your processing has brought them out rather nicely.

[Andyfx]

Wow thanks for the replies guys, am dying to finish work and get home to my laptop now lol! Yep you have indeed inspired me starfox, and im very glad you convinced me to get the heq5, it's a fine mount indeed and is rock solid with my ed70. Oh and thanks to Gina because id never have found the option to dim the polarscope if i hadn't stumbled onto a post of yours. Btw Gina have you opted for the 12nm narrowband due to light grasp of your scope, would the 7nm be too harsh? I may shell out for some narrowband filters once i get a handle on this post processing :-D

Thanks again everyone, i'll have a nose for the tutorials by Quartermass later too.

[Andyfx]

Thanks steppenwolf, probably more luck than judgement as i still dont have much of an idea what i'm doing lol. I really think that the images everyone posts here are amazing, just hope mine get as good in time.

[Andyfx]

@Starfox, thanks for the info mate i'll try the drizzle option later. Must say that all i can think of now though is lemon drizzle cake! :-)

[Andyfx]

Oh and thanks again squeaky :-)

[Gina]

Wow thanks for the replies guys, am dying to finish work and get home to my laptop now lol! Yep you have indeed inspired me starfox, and im very glad you convinced me to get the heq5, it's a fine mount indeed and is rock solid with my ed70. Oh and thanks to Gina because id never have found the option to dim the polarscope if i hadn't stumbled onto a post of yours. Btw Gina have you opted for the 12nm narrowband due to light grasp of your scope, would the 7nm be too harsh? I may shell out for some narrowband filters once i get a handle on this post processing :-D

Thanks again everyone, i'll have a nose for the tutorials by Quartermass later too.

Definitely worthwhile getting a good mount - top priority for DSO imaging.

Glad you found a post of mine useful

I opted for the 12nm Ha clip filter purely on cost - I would imagine the narrower the better, still lets through what you want but cuts out more of the white light from the moon and other wide spectrum pollution. I might buy a 7nm Baader 2" Ha for the scope and keep the 12nm clip filter for the wide-field camera rather than buying the much more expensive Astronomik 6nm Ha clip filter.

[squeaky]

Oh and thanks again squeaky :-)

You're welcome

You do realise that you're in for hours and hours of viewing and then "playing" with your image..?

I've found that the nice thing about the videos is that after watching them right through to catch the general drift I can then replay with PS open and pause the video at each step and see what it does to my own image when I try it. First goes at all this take hours some times, but the time quickly reduces with practice though real fine tuning can still take quite a while. It's still all trial and error for me though.

I always post my final results now as PNG rather than JPG because there's less data loss.

[Andyfx]

@Gina, thanks for clearing that up. I think i'll be getting the 2" filters as well as they will conveniently fit on my flattner, think i'll take a look at the 7nm ones when the time comes. Must learn to walk before i try to run ;-)