WADAS (Wakefield and District Astronomical Society)

[nicks90]

Nick when are you in kielder. Well have to arrange to meet up for a pint

We're going up on the 2nd and coming back 8th Aug.

Sam, you are totally right - its black magic.

[Sammyb]

I took about 30 frames, 11 dark frames and put them in dss, iml just don't have a clue about processing after tue stacking really. I know some people use photoshop but that's like rocket science to me lol

There are quite a few tutorials on the web and YouTube on altering the levels and stretching the curve

[Sam Baker]

I tried watching some but I didn't really get it. I need to get photoshop or something else that I can use which is idealy free

[Soupy]

Try GIMP Sam it's free and almost as good as photoshop.

[Soupy]

I'll give you a buzz if we get the house and are up then Nick

[Sam Baker]

I downloaded gimp but I look at it and my head goes fuzzy :/ I'll youtube some tutorials

[nicks90]

i've had a go in gimp and got some good results - well............ better than my attempts in DSS.

all i use DSS for is stacking - save the output file and open it in gimp. Go in to "Colours" and then levels.

move the slider on input levels to bracket the histogram and watch the image change from grey and wonky to something like.

you can then go in to colours and 'Curves' and move the straight line into a wonky S shape as required until it gets even more something like.

no idea about anything else, layer masks, star masks and all that witchcraft. But as I only do widefields, its probably very different as I dont have faint neb and others details in my images to pull out. Could do with learning so I can remove the colour gradients on the bottom of my images due to pesky street lights etc.

We need to tie Kieran down to a chair one evening and let him work on some of our DSS output files and show us what we're supposed to be doing.

[hazegood]

you can get photoshop CS2 for free legally from adobe, google it

[Sam Baker]

Thank you very much guys - since I don't know how to use either of them I'll try then both out and hopefully be able to get sine where!

[Soupy]

Just try out the levels first Sam it's amazing what detail you can pick out with a little patience.

[Sam Baker]

I'm gonna spend half hour faffing as soon as I get home lol I might surprise myself!

[nicks90]

heres my very poor attempt at a cygnus widefield in my back garden on thursday night.

in each sub, i could see a slightly redder patch of background around where the crescent neb is hiding in amongst the orange/red pollution, but when i moved the sliders to get rid of all the pollution it disappeared! But at least I was able to capture and retain some of the darker mottling areas beneath deneb and sadr.

gimp output SGL1.tif

gimp output2 SGL.tif

tonight i'm going to sit and watch a million youtube vids of GIMP and have another go.

[nicks90]

had a go with some youtube videos on layers and subtracting one from another in GIMP and I have had a success!!!!

heres my previous go at hercules with just moving the levels slider about and then here it is after subtracting the gaussian blurred layer.

Image details - 200mm F4.5, 22 subs at 10 sec

properly amazed! Wonder if this will work for my really widefields done at 20-55mm, or if there are too many stars in the background and the subtraction would remove too much? Or is this method really only good for images with fewer 'stars' in them that can be individually blurred out? Going to have a go anyway, but have a feeling it wont work.

[hazegood]

Forecast for tonight does not look too bad, winscarr anyone?

[Sam Baker]

I totally wish i could come. I'm in work till 5am and back in work at 3pm tomorrow but in horsforth and it's not as badly light polluted as home so I'm taking the baby with me and going to set it up and leave it to cool while I'm working and then spend a few hours with it happy days

[Soupy]

Sorry Leigh hour kids overt having a sleepover. Won't get away with leaving misses in charge

[hazegood]

ended up going up to Sutton bank, went onto gliding club just took camera got a load of shots need to review them and see what I got.

Hope you had a good holiday Paul, don't forget to give me a shout about moving that stuff for you

 

[Astronomer69]

Good forcast for tonight think I may dust off the cob webs and get the equipment out, winscarr anyone.

[stonemonkeylives]

I would like to but managed to injure my back, so I tend to be stoned on pain killers by 10pm at the moment

[Soupy]

Will let you know Leigh Cheers. Might need a lift next week with new ring for obsy.

I have a pass for tonight Kieran so might get out yes

[hazegood]

NO problem Paul, Just give me a bell day or so before

Quick question for the imagers, when out last night I forgot to take some darks to subtract to get rid of camera noise, and my best shot is full of noise,   so could I now as long as I set the same ISO and Exposure setting take some darks, or does the camera need to be at the same temperature as when I took the lights?

 

[Astronomer69]

Yeah same temp, exposure and ISO.

[Astronomer69]

Just thought will have to give tonight a miss as I have no laptop at the moment [emoji21]

[hazegood]

Ah well  will have to play around in photoshop.

Have managed to get this so far from one of my images,
 

https://www.dropbox.com/s/oyogb8tazjdxytm/milky1.jpg
 

 

[Soupy]

That's a shame Kieran, I do have a spare laptop but the battery prob won't last too long so if you have a charger for plugging into powertank you are welcome to borrow it.

Nice effort Leigh, and as Kieran says the darks should be taken as near to the same time as the noise levels will be different at different times and temps.