My first astrophoto processed and stacked

[Mr Bergman]

Hello all, and greetings from Sweden!

I have been using a DSLR for about two years, and just happened to open up my eyes for astrophotography about a month ago when I was out camping with my girlfriend and experienced a very beautiful nightsky. I started to think about how to capture the stars, and so it went on. And now I am hooked after reading a lot and seeing your pics and equipment:-)

I have used my Canon Eos 7d, Vixen polarie startracker basic setup, a tripod and a kit lens ( 18-135mm)

This is my very first photo stacked and edited in photoshop. 3*2,5mins with darks.

North america nebula with milky way.

Feel free to comment about it!

Best regards

[Black Knight]

That's a lot of stars, nice result!

[jgs001]

Off to a great start there Mr B.

[VigdisVZ]

It's full of stars! Good work. How far outside town did you go to capture this? My own meager attempts near Arlanda/Märsta don't even come close to this multitude of stars.

[Chris]

Thats a superb first attempt, congrats!

[Mr Bergman]

Thank you all! I am actually quite pleased! Although my eyes are tired of editing:-)

Vigdiz - the picture is taken just outside Sigtuna. Take your car and drive the old way towards Uppsala. And just find a nice spot somewhere!

[Erwin Kats]

Nice result for a first time !!

[VigdisVZ]

That's really close since I live in Märsta, I should try that when my scope arrives! First I was thinking about the nature reserve just south of Uppsala, but Kungshamn-Morga might be just too town.

Just drop me a PM if want hook up for joint photography some time in the future, weather permitting.

[Jessun]

Nice one! Looking forward to more!

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

That is some first shot! Well done!

[Gina]

Very nice first shot - well done And welcome to the land of astro addicts

[Mr Bergman]

Thank you all for kind response!I wonder how I can manage to squeeze more colour out? Maybe to stack loads of more raw´s? I wonder how many minutes I would need to actually see the dustclouds etc.?

[Gina]

Increase the colour Saturation in your image procesing software to bring out more colour - it's easy to overdo it though.

[Shibby]

Welcome to the slippery slope of astrophotography addiction! That's an excellent first image!

Yes, more subexposures is always good idea, it will reduce the noise further which may allow you to boost the saturation a bit more.

I can't see your stars up close, but some people use aperture masks for widefield, to reduce the diffraction effects caused by the aperture blades in the camera lens.

[Mr Bergman]

Welcome to the slippery slope of astrophotography addiction! That's an excellent first image!

Yes, more subexposures is always good idea, it will reduce the noise further which may allow you to boost the saturation a bit more.

I can't see your stars up close, but some people use aperture masks for widefield, to reduce the diffraction effects caused by the aperture blades in the camera lens.

Thank you! Didn´t use masks, but still got no diffraction what I can see. Although I got small blue rings around some stars, which I suspect is my own editing.

[Quatermass]

Thats a great first image and hopefully there will be many many more to come, its addictive though so be prepared to have hours and hours of nights out collecting photons.

[Mr Bergman]

Quatermass - yes I noticed that it takes some time:-) Have been sitting in front of my computer for hours and hours trying to figure out different steps and procedures, especially regarding photoshop curves and colours etc.

[Tom OD]

Welcome to Astrophotogrpahy Mr Bergman,

Great first pic.More data will allow you to stretch the image more, this will also give more colour and allow you to saturate the image some more.

Tom

[Mr Bergman]

Thank you Tom! Yep, I´ll need some more data. This is a steep learning curve, and as soon I think I got the grip of one step - another thing pops up which needs solution. A bit addictive!