deep sky stacker is teasing me

[nicks90]

AP is so incredibly frustrating!

Last night I decided to have a play with my new camera instead of getting the dob out - it was super clear and beautiful and the temptation to not take pictures and use the mark one eyeball was high. But I was determined to get my first ever AP widefield shot!

So I trooped out with my samsung nx100 and tripod and set up and did 25 exposures of 10 seconds at 50mm, F3.6, iso800, RAW mode. Each individual picture on live preview was absolutely stunning, with hardly noticeable star trails when zoomed right in. Was proper happy and couldnt wait to have a go at DSS!

Being a good lad, I even remembered to do a bunch of darks - 10 x 10 seconds.

copied them all on to my pc and had a quick look at each individual image, WOW! Super tight stars with the 4 corner stars of Orion filling the frame, with hints of orion neb as a definite blurry bit. When zoomed in you could almost make out some shape, but thats not really what I was after, just wanted a nice widefield.

Loaded them all up in DSS and used all the recommended options it presented me with (good job it does this as I have no idea what any of it means!) when registering followed by stacking them. Registering gave me the green light on every light frame with good scores and it created a master dark frame etc. Stacked them all nicely too. Out popped the preview window in DSS showing what the stacked image looked like - WOW WOW WOW WOW WOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!

To say I was over the moon is an understatement, really good black background with lovely tight stars - soooooo many stars! Didnt need to touch any of the scary sliders at the bottom of the screen, as the image looked mint. So I Immediately clicked save picture and saved it as a TIFF file and opened it up full of excitement to show my other half..........

WHAT THE HELL IS THAT??????

The image is appalling and looks nothing like the stacked image it showed in DSS. Its gray, pixelated to death and shows about 20 stars. ermmm..... arrr...... grrr........confused.

So why does DSS show a beautiful image, yet saves it as something that looks like a webcam made it?

I;m really confused and more than a bit dissapointed. What have I done wrong in DSS, that it shows a fantastic image yet saves junk?

any help would be appreciated!

Nick

[JB80]

When you click save file there should be a little box next to it to tick that says "save with settings applied" or something similar. If you check that box it should save the better looking image.

[nicks90]

thanks Jarrod, didnt notice that. I'll have a go of that when I get home,

I also took a similalr number of exposures of taurus with M45 in top right and centre of taurus in the middle - again each sub looked fantastic - but I was that devastated with the resulting image output of Orion i went to bed in a bad mood and didnt have the heart to stack them...

[nicks90]

jarrod, you are a star!!!

posted my efforts in the widefield sub forum.

[JB80]

Excellent Nick, will go check them out.

I can understand the frustration when things aren't going to plan, good that it's sorted.

[nicks90]

decided not to put them in widefield forum - but the beginners imaging bit instead, as I dont think they are good enough to be in the other bit.