My first ever astro images!!!

[Grant]

Using my new scope, it was pretty damn bright tonight!!! Lots of fun, saw Saturn, Orion, Mars, awesome!!!!!

I processed these by stacking a few of my best shots in registax, another first!! I then processed them in GIMP.....

I'm excited!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Grant]

This ones probably my best, Its one frame, I didn't use registax, just edited it slightly in GIMP using instructions from a tutorial James did awhile ago for Lunar images:

[CELESCOPE]

a verygood start there Grant you got it all there and for first shots i would say excellent , , now all you need to do is to come back on the exposure it was avery bright moon i always find using filters helps ro retain the definintion a lot better and allows better control over exposure , get that right mate and you arewelll on the way to good imaging ,

Cheers

Rog

[CELESCOPE]

Grant i have looked at your image and its mainly in the process, slight out of focus , but i would say you are doing very well mate  i have adjusted your image to show how good your first attempt is , a CRACKER MATE ,

ROG

good effort

[CELESCOPE]

Smaller version Grant

Rog

[Grant]

How did you do that Rog? That looks awesome!!! I think I lost some of the focus in registax, I was just blindly hitting buttons and hoping for the best, I would love to know how you got that result Rog!!!

Thanks guys for your kind words, can't wait to get out again now!!!!

[CELESCOPE]

not sure how you take your images Grant , mine is AVIs so i open up the AVI IN REGISTAX  set the % at 75 % and hit align , after that i optimise, and finally stack , once stacked i use the wavlett. using the first two adjustments only never go above  1.7 on the first two , after that i go to final and save , the main work after is done in PS WHERE I USE THE LEVELS,  , but before that any bright areas i use the lasso and then switch to levels and move the slider bars to darken that part , this u can carry out all over the image in sections , dont go to hard as this will notice , to overcome this set the feather to around 50, whilst carrying out this part u can also hit the quick focus under enhance do this only once though , i seldom use the the other sharpening tools as i dont like them a lot , i think its always best to get it really good on the initial take of the image it does mean a lot less work , another thing when taking frames keep them as dark as poss they will always some up bright on registax after stacking ,

Ok having said all this  , the planets require maybe more processing , this i mean in the wavletts , but once again i have found the better the image at first makes a huge difference to the final image , i,m afraid it is trial and error mainly , but this is how i go about it , some others may think different , try them all i say see what suits you best Grant ,

Cheers

Rog

[Grant]

Thanks Rog, lots of things for me to try out there!

[The Warthog]

Good going! Escellent first effort, Grant.

[OXO]

Weh Hey!

Nice one Mate it's wonderfull to see you get out there and get some nice images made my day!

Keep it up!

James :clouds2:

[FLO]

Way to go Grant  :thumbleft:

Can I play too 

[Grant]

Wow, that looks awesome Steve!! How did you do it?

[Ant]

Nice one grant - as I was flicking through the first few images, I was thinking "with a little levels, these are going to look great". The guys have done a great job in processing.

Fantastic first images, in fact I'd be fairly happy with them now!!!

Ant

[daz]

Some excellent pictures my friend - really nice

The processing is the hardest bit I find - not having a clue doesn't really help either!!!