First imaging sessions - M13, M27

[astrodam]

Hi, Having been observing with my SW150P (on an EQ3-2 motor driven mount) since march I am keen to start imaging so I recently bought a secondhand CanonT3 with other bits (polar scope, programmable remote, adapter ring) and waited for a clear night On the first night took some shots of M13 and was quite pleased with the results - I kept the time to 30 secs and at ISO100. Last night I imaged the dumbbell nebula ( 10x1min lights and 10x1min darks) at iso 1600 as I could see the nebula on the cameras LCD at this setting. I then downloaded DeepSkyStacker and fumbled about with it for a bit which resulted in a fairly light image which I made a bit better by adjusting the luminosity bit on the histogram. Next I adjusted the brightness and contrast with GIMP2 to get and Image I was fairly happy with for my first go. I then did the same with my M13 shots from last week. I'm sure there's loads more I could have done with these images but hopefully I'll get better the more I do and the more I understand the techniques. Hopefully some of you guys may have similar equipment and could give me a few pointers, there are some amazing images on here and its all up there for us all to see if we have enough patience. It will never cease to astound me

[Ulysses]

Great start! Paul

[Kropster]

Nice shots.

Now I feel guilty for not getting out and taking some... been putting it off, waiting for dark skies, but it looks like you did a great job even so.

[SnakeyJ]

Like these and dead jealous of the real estate offered by the DSLR - have you found the astrotools for GIMP yet ( http://libregraphicsworld.org/blog/entry/gimp-team-revitalizes-astrophotography-tools )? I haven't played with all, but the alignment and derotation ones are certainly working well in 2.8.6.

Do you debayer the images and process the colour channels separately, this might be helpful for treating the gradients and adjusting the colour balance - though I don't claim any expertise in any of these areas and just finding my feet.

Looking forward to the next release of Gimp as the 2.9 GEGL betas are quite flakey at present, but the promise of 16-32bit image processing is certainly worth hanging in for.

[astrodam]

Thanks guys, and thanks for the GIMP pointer SnakeyJ, I'll have a look into it. Hopefully it will all become clear one day and I'll get better at AP but I'm vertainly having fun trying it all out. The DSLR is good for normal photography too, two hobbies in one! The skies here were really clear last night and I'm sure I could even make out a faint whisper of the milky way Clear Skies!

[bri]

Hi astrodam, you've gone and done what you said you were going to do, congrats. After all the research and saving and setting up, it feels nice to get that first exposure to pop up on the screen isn't it? Well done mate, good captures. I started with your setup around the same time of year and couldn't wait for the longer, cooler nights and the bright winter objects to come around, like m42 and m45. They gave me a buzz too. Can't give much guidance on the processing side of it as I'm not that clued up on the subject myself, but you've obviously got the ball rolling and been successful I would say. Keep them coming!

[astrodam]

Hi Bri, The wife went out for the evening the other Friday and I was bored so I sat and spent lots of money on the shopping list Actually I got it all for the price of a brand new 1100D because I bought a second hand camera. I figured people will look after their canons I know I will. I was really pleased with the results and hope they will get better as I get more experienced. Your images gave me confidence that I could achieve something good with my setup. Looking forward to Andromeda and the ones you've suggested and also anything else I can get my eyes on from my back garden! Clear Skies Bri!

[Herrman]

Great images Astrodam! I particularly like the detail you've managed to extract from M13. Are you controlling your DSLR via a laptop, if so have you come across Astrophotography Tool (http://www.ideiki.com/astro/Default.) ?

All the best, Herrman

[astrodam]

Thanks Herrman, I don't have a laptop so I'm just setting up the focus by taking test shots then programming a cheap remote shutter release. Just dipping my toes a seeing what I can do with my kit