Fingers crossed

[Hawkeye]

Well for the first time ever I have managed to get the camera in focus, the guiding working and and clear night all to happen at the same time... So I have a run of 20 * 300 seconds lights in progess on M45.

Is it wrong to be excited and anxious about how the final image will look?

[Alien 13]

I just got my 2nd real attempts at M31 and the Pliedies done not expecting too much because i have realy bad light polution and am limited to 45 seconds per sub but im realy excited just the same.

[jambouk]

I'd be excited too.

James

[Hawkeye]

So silly really but this is the first time in 3 months that everything has come together.....

Mind you the 2nd sub has got a plane flying through it so that's one in the bin already....

10 down 10 to go......

[DaveS]

Bashing out M31 ATM. 32 x 120 sec subs with the Astronomic CLS filter, hope it kills some of the LP.

TBH I may knock it on the head when I've done M31, as the sky is really horrid orange. I was hoping for great things after the wind and rain, but it looks like the south westerly winds haven't cleared the sky as much as I'd hoped.

I may give the double-cluster a go, but it's a bit dispiriting.

[jambouk]

I did some m31 widefield the other week at fl 109mm (dslr with lens), 120second subs and cls ccd filter; they were all far too dark. I need to try that again and get much longer subs, i also need to do a better polar alignment to allow me to get longer subs.

It's all a good learning experience.

I would be nice to see side by side comparisons of the various filters with the same conditions and kit and exposure times to see how they all impact upon the final image.

I hope all your projects work out well tonight.

James

[DaveS]

Well I knocked it on the head.

My feet were getting cold and the sky was rubbish.

I'll have a look at my lights tomorrow, see if anything's worth using.

[jambouk]

Hoe you've got some good data.

James

[swag72]

I think we probably all get excited when we see the subs rolling in! Although I leave all my stuff running and sit inside checking occasionally, so my excitement is contained until I see the results in the morning after a good nights sleep

[DaveS]

Well, this is the utter rubbish (To use a forum-legal word) that I got from last night.

32 x 2 min un-guided subs stacked and first-pass in DSS, then second pass in DPP.

Beyond 2 min the stars start to trail and the background becomes even brighter. I manually dithered the guiding to avoid the fixed-pattern artefacts I got before.

I'm thinking of getting a guiding package, but I have other calls on my funds, including a recent expensive visit to the optician.

[Hawkeye]

Not yet had a chance to process my data from last night yet but as its cloudy tonight I'll have a play..

I was looking into a guiding system but at the moment I am just using the 50mm finder scope and a webcam. Seemed to work OK on the 300 second sub's I took last night.

As it was so clear last night I even took 40 * 30 second sub's of M42 so I can practice some processing of that..

[Alien 13]

I managed to get mine done 8x 1min subs i am very pleased considering the amount of LP i have.

[Hawkeye]

That's really good, I need to learn not to over stretch my images.....

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk

[wxsatuser]

Filter wise the Hutech IDAS LP works wonders.

Last night I had the usual sodium rubbish plus the local football club floodlights.

I could see stuff washed out naked eye, even so did some test shots with my 600D and here is one of M45.

SW 80ED Pro+reducer+Hutech...... 1x30secs at iso6400.

Little messing with the Digital photo pro and small adjustments with Irfanview.

[frugal]

Well, it has to be better than my first attempt at astrophotography. I was out for three hours last night and attempted:

A wide field shot of the milky way above the treeline. 18mm Camera lens; 18 subs at 20 seconds, ISO800. Got a non descript starfield

I noticed some star trailing, so I attempted a second wide field shot of the milky way pointing in a different direction. 30 subs @ 15 seconds, ISO800. Got another non descript starfield.

Finally I went around to the other side of the house (next door had turned their lights off and gone to bed at this point), and had a go at Pleiades. About camera zoomed to about 80mm, 18 subs @ 6 seconds ISO800. Stacked in DSS and then fiddled with and heavily cropped in Photoshop. 6 seconds was all I was able to take before star trailing became really apparent.

Pliedies by frugal10191, on Flickr

Despite all that, I am pleased with what I managed to achieve with just a camera on a fixed photography tripod. I can see why this becomes an obsession with people.

I will not spend £600 on a mount... I will not spend £600 on a mount... I will not spend £600 on a mount...

[frugal]

Also, how do people manage to attach photos directly to the posts? I have obviously missed a trick somewhere.

[DaveS]

I will not spend £600 on a mount... I will not spend £600 on a mount... I will not spend £600 on a mount...

Oh but you will, you will...

If you click on "More reply options" next to the "Post" button you'll see, at the very bottom of the page a set of "Attach file" buttons.

[Alien 13]

Also, how do people manage to attach photos directly to the posts? I have obviously missed a trick somewhere.

 Hi I attached an image using the more reply options button and you dont need to spend £600 my mount was very cheap.

[Scott]

Well, this is the utter rubbish (To use a forum-legal word) that I got from last night.

32 x 2 min un-guided subs stacked and first-pass in DSS, then second pass in DPP.

Beyond 2 min the stars start to trail and the background becomes even brighter. I manually dithered the guiding to avoid the fixed-pattern artefacts I got before.

I'm thinking of getting a guiding package, but I have other calls on my funds, including a recent expensive visit to the optician.

[Scott]

Sorry, don't know what happened there. Meant to say there's a bit more there than you might think. just a little play with levels and curves in ps and gradient exterminator.

[DaveS]

Well I did a bit more work including fixing the white-balance and a bit more stretch.

[DaveS]

Ah, auspom, sorry I didn't see your post while I was re-working the image. I just did some basic levels (I'd already done curves). Still rubbish though.

[Scott]

it's a steep learning curve hey .

still, wouldn't be worth it if it was too easy

[Alien 13]

Sorry, don't know what happened there. Meant to say there's a bit more there than you might think. just a little play with levels and curves in ps and gradient exterminator.

 Nice picture i am new at imaging and am learning that the gap between the initial subs and the final image has so many variables that it becomes an art in itself.

[DaveS]

Ah, I see you've managed to pull a bit more out of the spiral arms.

I doubt whether the data will stand any more. Perhaps if I can push the subs up to 3-4 min and take a good few more it might help.

When M31 gets higher I have another go.