Image file request

[idigitize]

Hi,

Im patiently waiting to buy my first scope and mount for DSO imaging. AVX + 80ed is about to get ordered. (birthday is less than 2 weeks away, fingers crossed)

I wondered if either any one had, or knew of any image sets available so I can practice with Deep Sky Stacker and processing techniques. I can manage a few blurry shots of orion with my current dslr and dodgy tripod, but would love to have something better to play with.

Be great if someone had some real life lights, darks, flats etc available in Dropbox or somewhere similar, would be really grateful.

Cheers

Ben

[Langy]

If you already have a DSLR and can shoot in RAW mode then you should be able to get something good to work with yourself.

If the images are blurry then either you have the focus wrong (try and focus on something very bright to start with) or the shutter speed is to slow (try using the 600 rule).

You should be able to get some good images with a DSLR to work with which will be a key learning curve to using a DSLR prime focus as any vibration or focusing issues are going to be far worse through the scope than with a lens taking wide field images.

[lensman57]

Hi,

Im patiently waiting to buy my first scope and mount for DSO imaging. AVX + 80ed is about to get ordered. (birthday is less than 2 weeks away, fingers crossed)

I wondered if either any one had, or knew of any image sets available so I can practice with Deep Sky Stacker and processing techniques. I can manage a few blurry shots of orion with my current dslr and dodgy tripod, but would love to have something better to play with.

Hi Ben,

An early happy birthday but with regards to files for DSS, as it is an almost automated process software there is very little input from the user besides following the prompts .

Regards,

A.G

[Alien 13]

I agree with Paul you should try with you DSLR setup you can get great images with 10-20 seconds exposure time and it will also be useful in determining your level of light polution too.

Alan

[idigitize]

Cheers.. I find focus hard, or at least more hit and miss rather than specific, cos the vibrations last so long after adjusting the focus, liveview is all over the place or the star has moved out of the zoomed up focus area.

I guess I was focusing on stretching and pulling data out of nebula style shots... not really thinking of wider angles.  Think my mind is just side tracked with getting a solid mount i'm not thinking straight.

[frugal]

If you just want some images to play with, then why not look at the Hubble images: 

I find a good image, by looking through the prize winners such as: http://www.spacetelescope.org/images/heic1107a/

And then look for the data in the archive based on the object name and the filters used. So the data for the above image is found with this search: http://hla.stsci.edu/hlaview.html#Inventory|filterText%3D%24filterTypes%3D|query_string=ARP%20273&posfilename=&poslocalname=&posfilecount=&listdelimiter=whitespace&listformat=degrees&RA=35.377500&Dec=39.366110&Radius=0.200000&inst=WFC3&imagetype=best&prop_id=&spectral_elt=&proprietary=both&preview=1&output_size=256&cutout_size=12.8|ra=&dec=&sr=&level=ℑ=&inst=ACS%2CACSGrism%2CWFC3%2CWFPC2%2CNICMOS%2CNICGRISM%2CCOS%2CWFPC2-PC%2CSTIS%2CFOS%2CGHRS&ds=

You can then download the FITS files and have your own go at processing it.

You can also change to the Footprint tab to get a visual representation of which areas of sky the images cover.