M31 - Post your (DSLR) attempts

[Dave_D]

25 panel mosaic not to your fancy then Dave  ?

HAH i have enough trouble with 1x1 panels lol

[tingting44]

Its looking too good to turn down tonight, crystal clear all night! ive told work i will not be in tomorrow lol so all set for tonight! will be getting to my dark site for around 7:30pm, about an hour to set up and get ready for astro darkness at 9pm......needless to say ill be imaging M31 and am hoping for at least 6-7 hours worth of 600sec subs. hopefully ill have a decent image to post next week.....

[Christopher Davenport]

Its looking too good to turn down tonight, crystal clear all night! ive told work i will not be in tomorrow lol so all set for tonight! will be getting to my dark site for around 7:30pm, about an hour to set up and get ready for astro darkness at 9pm......needless to say ill be imaging M31 and am hoping for at least 6-7 hours worth of 600sec subs. hopefully ill have a decent image to post next week.....

Nice sounds exciting, temps dropped last night to 9c around us, so hoping you had a successful run. Let us know how it went.

[tingting44]

Nice sounds exciting, temps dropped last night to 9c around us, so hoping you had a successful run. Let us know how it went.

 i was trying to turn my rubbish notebook on for about an hour when i got there, i was getting so annoyed i was about to pack up and come home and then it just turned on! after that problem everything ran smooth like a babies bum hahaha, the dew was unreal out there last night but i battled it and kept it at bay all night!!! VICTORY! haha, defo got my best data to date, gonna av a coffee and sit down and have  my 1st crack at it.... one thing that annoyed me was when i came to take my flats i could not fit my light panel flush against the scope as my auto focuser was in the way, so i took flats with the dew shield on,not sure if they will work like that? or if i will be better off not using the flats with the dew shield on and trying to sort out having no flats in processing? well worth going out tho, i got about 5 hours worth of 10 min subs, hopefully ill have an image to post soon

[Christopher Davenport]

One thing that annoyed me was when i came to take my flats i could not fit my light panel flush against the scope as my auto focuser was in the way, so i took flats with the dew shield on,not sure if they will work like that?

Nice glad to hear you persevered! At least you made it out, I could not image because I had a 9am in London. Then found out at 830am that it was cancelled. Nice love my boss!

Anyway whenever I go out rural imaging I stick off grass or shrubs as they create a lot of moisture. Car parks are pretty good, but random strangers can be annoying.

On the flats, I take them using a white laptop screen, last thing before I kickoff my imaging run. Must say flats often cause me hassles while stacking. So I often tend to fix with PS lens correction and a artificial flat for gradient removal.

I can send you a link to my PS actions if you want.

[tingting44]

Nice glad to hear you persevered! At least you made it out, I could not image because I had a 9am in London. Then found out at 830am that it was cancelled. Nice love my boss!

Anyway whenever I go out rural imaging I stick off grass or shrubs as they create a lot of moisture. Car parks are pretty good, but random strangers can be annoying.

On the flats, I take them using a white laptop screen, last thing before I kickoff my imaging run. Must say flats often cause me hassles while stacking. So I often tend to fix with PS lens correction and a artificial flat for gradient removal.

I can send you a link to my PS actions if you want.

yes i would have been kicking myself today if i did pack up and go home after trying to turn the notebook on for over an hour! a re install of windows is a must, ive just been putting it off as its a royal pain

awww what a bummer your 9am got cancelled in the end its looking clear tonight too! but i cant take another night off work lol thanks for your dew tip buddy...

ive got this for taking flats

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/like/331224632167?limghlpsr=true&hlpv=2&ops=true&viphx=1&hlpht=true&lpid=108&device=c&adtype=pla&crdt=0&ff3=1&ff11=ICEP3.0.0-L&ff12=67&ff13=80&ff14=108&ff19=0

kind of wish i just got this one i was going to get in the 1st place....

http://www.gerdneumann.net/english/astrofotografie-parts-astrophotography/aurora-flatfield-panels/uebersicht-aurora-flatfield-panels-overview.html

as it would have fitted nicely with my auto focuser.....BUT the flats i done last night with the dew shield on place have worked flawlessly, so im a happy bunny, will be taking flats with the dew shield on from now on

thanks for your PS actions, be nice to look over, you can never stop learning with this hobby.....

oh got the final stack complete now and im over the moon, still its only 4 hours worth of data after taking out a few rejected frames due to planes so this is 1/6th of the final image but i am very happy.....

ill try to get a rough copy of the image to post up this evening, just going over it now

[tingting44]

here is my rough copy so far, need to go to bed for work now, so will have to finish it off over the next few days, still a lot more detail to pull out hopefully.....

24 x 10 min subs

39 darks matched to light temps

82 flats

800 bias

part 1 of 6 imaging sessions planned 

SW 130-pds

HEQ5

Baader LP filter

SW Coma corrector

Canon 7D

DSS,PS CS5

1st stack - work in progress #2 - pre save.. by tingting44, on Flickr

[PhotoGav]

@tingting44 - well done for not taking no for an answer! Your image is looking excellent already. +1 for defeating technology when it fights against us!

[PhotoGav]

Meant to add that I couldn't see the image on Flickr as it is a 'private image'...

[Christopher Davenport]

here is my rough copy so far, need to go to bed for work now, so will have to finish it off over the next few days, still a lot more detail to pull out hopefully.....

24 x 10 min subs

39 darks matched to light temps

82 flats

800 bias

part 1 of 6 imaging sessions planned 

 

Arrg Martin, you putting a bug in my mind, to collect more data on this! I was hoping to put this to bed, as I am currently working on the witches broom. 

I have about 5 hrs on the broom, from before I modded and I have just set off another 5 hours of it post mod. 

(Love watching my guiding and listening to it ticking along, like a old 56k modem downloading.)

What ISO are you using for 10min subs, as you must be running at F4.5, so ISO 200?

[D4N]

Mine from tonight;

4 x 300s lights (guided), darks, flats and bias.

Fuji finepix S5 pro at ISO 800.

Unfortunately my objective froze so I lost some subs.

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[tingting44]

@tingting44 - well done for not taking no for an answer! Your image is looking excellent already. +1 for defeating technology when it fights against us!

Thanks Gav! yeah we will win the techy fight haha

Meant to add that I couldn't see the image on Flickr as it is a 'private image'...

yes, i put it as private as ive not finished yet, ill put a live copy up on flickr once im happy with this sessions data

Arrg Martin, you putting a bug in my mind, to collect more data on this! I was hoping to put this to bed, as I am currently working on the witches broom. 

I have about 5 hrs on the broom, from before I modded and I have just set off another 5 hours of it post mod. 

(Love watching my guiding and listening to it ticking along, like a old 56k modem downloading.)

What ISO are you using for 10min subs, as you must be running at F4.5, so ISO 200?

lol you can never have too much data can not wait to see your witches broom, i take it your imaging that with a modded dslr right?

i shot at ISO800 with 10 min subs & SW CC, id never shoot as low as ISO200, but thats just me.....i see a great M31 a few pages back shot at ISO200

[AstroAndy]

5 and 10m w/ my unmodified Canon 1100d from an LP area, 300mm lens piggybacked on my SW200P w/ EQ5 Synscan mount. Guided exposures, w/ flats, bias and darks (don't know how many, anymore, nor the no. of subs).

[davefrance]

Took 90 frames at varies shutter speeds (60 secs, 90 secs and 120 secs) with a view to stacking them separately in DSS and then combining them and post processing. Unfortunately it was DSS's night to play up. i don't know why, tried three times with different settings and each time it just got worse.

So here is a simple 26 x 90 secs "stitched" with Microsoft Ice (Panorama Program) with simple processng. Perhaps I will try DSS again another day when it is feeling a bit more cooperative.  Shows there is some data there waiting to get out.

and here is one I screwed up earlier  M31 goes psychedelic 

 

   

[Christopher Davenport]

Took 90 frames at varies shutter speeds (60 secs, 90 secs and 120 secs) with a view to stacking them separately in DSS and then combining them and post processing. Unfortunately it was DSS's night to play up. i don't know why, tried three times with different settings and each time it just got worse.

So here is a simple 26 x 90 secs "stitched" with Microsoft Ice (Panorama Program) with simple processng. Perhaps I will try DSS again another day when it is feeling a bit more cooperative. Shows there is some data there waiting to get out.

That looks pretty amazing considering you did not stack it all together. You have some good data there.

If I may suggest an approach, in DSS select all your lights and stack them as HDR. Now the full range should be in the final image. (Ignor your darks and flats first time round as they may be causing the problems)

Once stacked do a strong stretch in DSS and save the image, then pull the stretch back to reveal the core, now save a second copy.

Take these two through to PS to play with as layers.

The advantage of this approach is that the two (or if you wish,3) images will all have the same gradient and be perfectly aligned for post processing.

[davefrance]

Thanks for the suggestions, will have a go.