Orion and Jupiter-Pleiades using 50mm lens

[stargazerlily]

Hi everyone,

This is my very first proper attempt at widefield using a nifty fifty lens on a Canon 1000d mounted on a tri pod. Exposure time 8 seconds, IS0 800, Aperture F/4.0.

For the Orion shots, I took 15 lights, 6 darks and 4 bias frames. For Pleiades, I took 12 lights. I used the same number of darks and bias shots as for Orion.

Images stacked in DSS using default settings and processed in GIMP.

I think both images are slightly out of focus and I'm still not sure what I'm doing in terms of processing. It's a start.

thanks

Pete

[stargazerlily]

Sorry, forgot to attach the images .. do-oh

[jgs001]

Looks like a nice start Pete, I'm on my phone at the mo, and the screen is a bit small for a proper look, so I'll take a proper look later. However, you've got M42 showing up.

[jgs001]

Had a better look... The Pleiades is not in focus, a bit blurry. The Orion image looks better focused, and I think you've done quite well.. I think you could probably get a bit more out of it, although with GIMP being 8 bit, you're probably going to struggle with the processing. Orion fits better rotating the camera to a more portrait orientation.

[stargazerlily]

Many thanks John for having a second look.

Yes, looking at the images again, Pleiades is out of focus. I think I tried to focus on Jupiter and not the stars.

I used Live View x10 on the camera to check the focus. I turn the focus ring a few times back and forth to see the star go out and then back into focus again. I try to stop the focus when the star is a small blob. Is this the best way to achieve focus?

I did wonder about Orion. I thought being slight off center in the image it may have been out of focus (coma?). I guess the most ideal position for would be in the center of the image.

Ah ... 8 bit GIMP ... I never thought of that.

Thank you for your comments. It's all a big learning curve (or is that a Level?).

Pete

[Ptarmigan]

Ah ... 8 bit GIMP

Someone on the forum a short time ago pointed us to a new experimental 16bit Gimp v2.9 (Windows version at http://www.partha.com/ )

[stargazerlily]

Thanks for the link. I downloaded GIMP 2.9 (build 25th Jan 2013) but doesn't seem to work 100% on my Win7 64bit PC (at least). When I load in one of my TIFF files and apply levels or curves, the image does not update even with the Preview toggle button switched on. After that, menu options start to hang. I end up having to exit the program. Perhaps I have to wait a bit longer as it is processing.

Cheers

Pete