Pleiades M45, Editing advice please

[topgearuk]

Hello everyone,

I'm after some advice on how to edit my images or if anyone could point me to guides on the web..  I’m still a Noobie, but I have over the years had a dabble here and there and recently have done a little research, to help my understanding more of Astrophotography..

I know probably joining a local club will probably be my best way forward, but also wanted to try and gain a little knowledge on my own..

I have only ever had about 4 attempts at photographing anything skyward (with varying degrees of success in my view, The moon, Saturn, short time lapse of the heavens and now M45..

I know my equipment to hand is very limiting but before I research and spend money, I wanted to try what I have to hand and see what kind of results I can get, I’m not expecting much at this stage.

I used to own an a slightly more ideal camera (Canon 550d) that would have helped going forward and used this on my 1st 3 attempts, but sold it after I brought a Sony NEX 6, this has a slightly bigger image sensor and after comparing the 2 camera’s, I preferred the images it took for everyday stuff, the video quality is also much better, but the lenses are very limiting.. And at the time the Sony fitted my needs better, if I was going out for the day the Sony would be more likely to come along being much smaller and lighter then the Canon..

Last night I went out in to my garden in a light polluted area and tried imaging M45, I managed to take around 400 subs plus 15 Bias and 15 Darks, using iso 6400, 1.3sec’s @F5.6 on a 210mm lens and stacked them in DSS.

I see there is a guide that’s just popped up on youtube about editing M45 in Photoshop, but it’s in German and he flies through the process so quickly it’s hard to follow, but when he started off the image looks similar to mine and by the end he has completely transformed his image, now I know mine will not have that amount of data in but how can I tell how much I can pull out from it, if any.. My knowledge of Photoshop isn’t great and I know going forward if I want to do Astrophotography, I'm going to need to learn a lot lot more..

So if anybody could offer any help, I would be greatful or am I completly wasting my time on this setup?

This is a quick go I had, before and after, these are Jpg's, but I do have the original TIFF's still..

[Sandancer10]

Hi and welcome to SGL.

I think your first attempt at imaging is very good and you seem to have the basics of what's necessary to capture enough data to process.

 I am currently on the same steep learning curve and decided that if I wanted to be able to get the best out of my AP was to buy a really good tutorial. I therefore went on recommendations from SGL members and got 'Making every Pixel' count from Caelum Observatory. It cost approx £90 with import duty, but I can highly recommend it. I have already found some very helpful tips on Astro processing and it is certainly worthwhile.

Here is the link: http://www.caelumobservatory.com/video/dvd.shtml

Best of luck on your Astro journey.

[Pete Presland]

hi topgear i think your best route would be to take some longer widefield exposures, 1.5 secs is very short. with a standard 18mm lens you could take at least 20 secs exposures and stack those. if you can get to somewhere that has dark skies as well, all the better!

[topgearuk]

Hi, Thanks for your reply..

Yes I have seen that guide mentioned quite a few times on here (I’ve been lurking for some time) and will definitely look in to buying it and thanks for the Link..

You are right.... It really is a steep learning curve, up until recently I always thought the hardest part was the actual taking the image in the 1st place, but now that only seems like half the challenge, as once you got the image, it’s then knowing what to do with it to get the best out of it, still I like the challenge.

Best of luck to you too!

[topgearuk]

hi topgear i think your best route would be to take some longer widefield exposures, 1.5 secs is very short. with a standard 18mm lens you could take at least 20 secs exposures and stack those. if you can get to somewhere that has dark skies as well, all the better!

Hi Thanks also for your reply, Yes I will give that a try, also one of my ultimate goals is to capture the Milkyway, where I know wide field and dark skies is a must.

The lens that came with my camera goes down to 16mm so I might be able to stretch it to 25 secs.  When I had my Canon I came very close to buying the Tokina 11-16mm, I wish they made that for my camera!

[Alien 13]

Hi Thanks also for your reply, Yes I will give that a try, also one of my ultimate goals is to capture the Milkyway, where I know wide field and dark skies is a must.

The lens that came with my camera goes down to 16mm so I might be able to stretch it to 25 secs.  When I had my Canon I came very close to buying the Tokina 11-16mm, I wish they made that for my camera!

As a general rule of thumb the max exposure time on a fixed tripod before star trails become obvious is 400 divided by lens focal length so for a 50mm lens this would be 8 seconds, the actual time is dependent on the distance the object is from the pole star so you can experiment a bit with slightly longer or shorter exposures.

Alan

[topgearuk]

As a general rule of thumb the max exposure time on a fixed tripod before star trails become obvious is 400 divided by lens focal length so for a 50mm lens this would be 8 seconds, the actual time is dependent on the distance the object is from the pole star so you can experiment a bit with slightly longer or shorter exposures.

Alan

Yes, that equation sounds about right for a Canon Crop sensor camera, Canon’s APS-C are crop 1.6, my Sony crop is 1.5, so a 50mm on a Canon would equal 80mm or 75mm on my Sony,  think 8 secs sounds about right on a APS-C camera.

While a Full Frame sensor this would = 50mm and you could probably get around 15+ sec’s before star trail.

[andrewluck]

The sensor size has no impact on the focal length when you're considering trailing. It only affects the field of view. So, a 50mm lens will be good for about 8 seconds on a 1.6 crop or a full frame sensor.

Andrew

[topgearuk]

The sensor size has no impact on the focal length when you're considering trailing. It only affects the field of view. So, a 50mm lens will be good for about 8 seconds on a 1.6 crop or a full frame sensor.

Andrew

I thought the focal length would be different as a 50mm on a 1.6 crop is actually = 80mm, seems like I have a steep learning curve I am trying to absorb as much as I can..

Mean while other then the 1st person to post, no one has offered any advice on my actual question

I know my equipment is limited, but we all have to start somewhere, I have got an old Meade LXD75, I picked up from ebay last year at a bargin price and have just had an adaptor turn up to fit my camera so will also give this a try.

My 2nd attempt using camera and 200mm lens