Orion Nebula with an 85mm

[Leveye]

Caught Orion last night with my 85mm rokinon at f1.4 pretty amazing what you can get 6 exposures 6 sec iso 1600 4 darks 4 bias stacked in DSS which finally worked pretty good for me but i lost some color that i could not get back any ideas what setting i should use there?

[cstew]

There is a guide to using dss on here, you need to save the image and embed the settings, then you can tease out the data in photoshop or equivalent, using levels or curves. I took some images of the orion nebula with my 85mm canon lens, stacked 100 3s subs but couldn't really notice any major improvement over a single image.

[Ulysses]

The more data you have the more you can pull out the colour and detail. This would mean longer subs and more of them. However both these images are a great start! Stacking a number of images generally improves the signal to noise ratio, but if the subs are too short, it can be difficult to improve things. Paul

[cstew]

Until I have a guided mount, I'll struggle to get much more than 5s subs

[Ulysses]

It's a good example of what's possible without one though!!

[Leveye]

One thing i learned last night using DSS is not to use the auto adaptive weighted average method of stacking or drizzle and now always use median the current version 3.3.3 beta just locks up and crashes after it tries to form an image i'm sure they'll fix it soon those brainiacs

[jammo]

That is a great shot, better than some guided shots i've seen, for 6 second exposures that is amazing

Was it from a very dark site???

[cstew]

One thing i learned last night using DSS is not to use the auto adaptive weighted average method of stacking or drizzle and now always use median the current version 3.3.3 beta just locks up and crashes after it tries to form an image i'm sure they'll fix it soon those brainiacs

After waiting for what seemed like an age, the beta did give me an error message and then just spat out a bright white image!

[Leveye]

Thanks Jammo and everyone! This one was taken in the backyard behind the house with some sodium lights around but blocked didn't seem to give me any trouble just made sure they did not hit the lens directly and of course used a hood i wonder if that's what effected the colors of the stars so much. Nebula thats what happened to a few of mine never again will i wait that long..lol

[Leveye]

Nebula which Canon 85mm do you use? My Rokinon only cost $250 on special on amazon can't say how much i love this lens.

[sgazer]

Excellent, I had the very same lens from Bell and Howell. It's amazing how bright it is and how much glass it has. Your 6 secs is equivalent to about 60s with an f5 scope! Possibly one of the best lenses I've had. My friend has it now that I've swapped to using a compact zoom.

[sgazer]

oops - deleted

[Leveye]

Yes there are so many names for it it's actually made by Samyang if i'm not mistaken very very pleased with it's astrophotographic capabilities actually like it wide open compared to stopping it down and getting x flares on everything still really sharp at 1.4!

[Pete Presland]

nice shot, i am definitely going give some un-guided shots a go with my modded DSLR to see if i can captures benards loop around orion.

[Jannis]

Nice capture. I love these wide field pics!

After stacking in DSS, i usually always go to the saturation setting in DSS and set it up to 15-20% to get the colors back. Don't know if you tried this allready? Could also be done in PS or similar afterwards or course.

[Leveye]

I did try that Jannis just touching the saturation and it made no difference after hitting apply not sure why also lost the flame nebula in this one you can see it in the individual images oh well part of the process and the fun of this right? right. Spasiba everyone!

[cstew]

Nebula which Canon 85mm do you use? My Rokinon only cost $250 on special on amazon can't say how much i love this lens.

Are you asking what lens I use? Have you got nebula on the brain If so it's the canon 85mm f/1.8 USM lens

[Guy Wells]

Lovely photograph!

[Jannis]

I did try that Jannis just touching the saturation and it made no difference after hitting apply not sure why also lost the flame nebula in this one you can see it in the individual images oh well part of the process and the fun of this right? right. Spasiba everyone!

I see. It's a bit odd though that you don't see any difference, as it have been clearly visable change on everything i've stacked so far.

As for the flame nebula, i had the complete opposite experience when i stacked my 50mm 5s subs. I stacked with kappa sigma clipping settings if i don't remember wrong. Horsehead and flame wasn't really visable at all on the individual subs, but clearly showed up on the stacked one after stretching a bit in PS (i burned the M42 though, but that's because i processed it incorrectly afterwards).

But I guess maybe you just need lots more subs to also get the faint details more clear in the stacked result. I stacked with like 530 frames.

But your M42 looks quite nice at least.

[Leveye]

Are you asking what lens I use? Have you got nebula on the brain If so it's the canon 85mm f/1.8 USM lens

Nebula on the brain most def cstew sorry bout that!

[Leveye]

Yes Jannis i do find it odd as well but reading watching and learning from people like you is bringing me closer. To what i don't know but closer..;-)

[cstew]

Nebula on the brain most def cstew sorry bout that!

No problems, it's the member status thing above the username, yours says nebula too.