The "No EQ" DSO Challenge!

[Manners2020]

Just found a great noise remover for mobile app. It's the free version of adobe  light room.  Just if anyone is interested in a very quick way of doing this.

[antaeus]

On 15/09/2019 at 10:52, happy-kat said:

StarTools I like to do

Crop Bin Wipe Develop Colour, Then twiddle if needed

But I think I'm going to change habit and do

Bin autodev (only to see what to crop off but not keep) crop wipe develop colour

I like StarTools for processing my images. For me, the sequence is :
Develop Crop Bin Wipe Develop Life(Less&More) Life(Less&More) Flux(Detail) Flux(Detail) Flux(Noise) Life(Less&More) Colour Denoise Heal Magic(Shrink stars)

I managed to get PacMan nebula (NGC281) on 85% illuminated Moon. I used the Baader UHC-S L-booster filter, but I could not get the colors right for the stars. Should I had checked in DSS the Ha option in recommended settings maybe? I also got 31x120sec without the filter. I will try to combine them with the resulted DSS image with filter in StarTools, I believe it is possible to do that. 

- 41x120sec, 10 darks, 50 bias, 40 flats, ISO 1600,
- Antares f/6.3 placed inside Pyxis LE, FR obtained f/5, 
- 1.25'' Baader UHC-S L-booster filter in front of the camera,
- Pyxis LE rotator
- FujiFilm X-A1,
- Meade LT-8 ACF.

 

Thank you,
Cezar

Edited September 16, 2019 by antaeus

[antaeus]

I have stacked in DSS both images with LP and non-LP filter, approximately 142 minutes of exposure. I went not so aggressive in ST with Wipe. Still not so much improvement on stars, but I got more from Pacman nebula. StarTools is a very powerful software for processing the images, much to learn.

[happy-kat]

Great pacman. Your stars have white middles did they look like that before processing if so don't tick the align rgb in DSS, if it is from StarTools look at any masks you used perhaps the star one was not big enough. I personally like to use the colour module with a starmask to protect them if they are prone to colour ringing.

[antaeus]

Thank you. In DSS I have processed without align RGB and with No Background Calibration options. Maybe because of the Baader UHC-S filter, the stars seems to have white color, so I didn't use the star mask in ST when I applied the color module.  Also, I processed in DSS the non-filter RAW files, with the same result in ST, the big stars have white middle. I believe, maybe those stars where over-exposed?

Cezar

[happy-kat]

Did you use the Deconvolution module, perhaps you should try grow twice on the fat star auto mask. This is a nice site with a variety of tips which might be helpful.

Blog link

 

[happy-kat]

I think for example the colour halo on these stars might be caused through processing rather than acquisition if it isn't hinted at on the raw frames.

Hope you don't mind my comments.

[btalbot85]

EQ mount what??? LOL J.K. But in all seriousness this thread made me join this forum and get much more excited, and knowledgeable about using my new Nexstar 6SE arriving tomorrow. During my search, I became more discouraged than encouraged with my purchase of a 6SE being told or reading "Sell it and spend $$$$$ on an eq", as with most of you, my budget does not permit a EQ right now. Thanks to all the posters and contributors and here soon, I will hopefully have some good shots, as long as this darn weather gives me a clear sky soon. I am hoping my modded 450D, 6.3 focal reducer, and wedge will provide some good shots. I was able to score a JMI megapod with wedge for 49 bucks, so hey why not! 

Edited October 16, 2019 by btalbot85

[happy-kat]

Welcome and that's lovely you are excited about your telescope. Using a wedge does mean it becomes equatorial in how it tracks. The users on this thread with your mount are not using a wedge through may be using a smaller telescope.

Here's to clear skies.

[Adam1234]

Here's my first attempt at imaging the Ring Nebula, taken with a Canon 2000D through the Sky-Watcher 10-Inch dobsonian alt-az, with 2 x barlow between camera and scope. 

I stacked 19 x 5s images with Deep Sky Stacker, with 4 darks. I think the ISO was 3600.  I had to select the super pixel node to get them to stack as DSS wasn't detecting any stars due to tailing/and or slightly out of focus. 

[btalbot85]

On 16/10/2019 at 03:34, happy-kat said:

Welcome and that's lovely you are excited about your telescope. Using a wedge does mean it becomes equatorial in how it tracks. The users on this thread with your mount are not using a wedge through may be using a smaller telescope.

Here's to clear skies.

The great thing about the wedge, as you know, is I can drop it down into Alt-Az at any time I was looking at a faster scope as well.  I just got mmy 6SE yesterday and what A BLAST!  Well I won't hijack this thread, so hopefully soon I can post something DSO.  I was able to test my 450D last night and got a few 20 sec exposures of the Andromeda Galaxy.  I am now cramming knowledge so I can get this whole post-processing figured out. Thanks1

[Manners2020]

M33 . I set the gain  way higher than I normally do on this occasion  and it seemed to work well.  I  think I normally worry too much about noise so keep it fairly low. Anyway  field rotation was becoming too much of a problem after half hour  of 18 second exposures.  Zwo294 mc , gain 380, 20 darks and flats.  9.25 nexstar evolution.  Gimp, snapseed, ps express. 

[Manners2020]

Can't  seem to catch a break with globs. I did this same target awhile  ago with a dslr and it turned out pretty good but really struggle with the settings on the zwo. Also can never seem to go longer than ten minutes before the clouds come. M13 I think it was just over 8 minutes of ten second exposures  with the 9.25 evo and 294mc.

[Andrei Dumitriu]

Hi everyone,

I've been following this topic for a while now and read all of its 143 pages over the course of a few weeks. It's one of the most valuable AZ topics regarding DSO imaging I could find so far. And I came in just to offer a BIG thank you for all you detailed experience and effort you've put here so others can learn from it, just like myself.

The below picture is my way of saying Thank You to all of you for helping me trying to do my best on AZ. Here is one of my best DSO projects so far with 2h integration time - M33. I'm happy with what it came out in the end but it is far from finished. I still wish to add more data to it.

 

Here's the tech details:

Mount: Sky-Watcher AZ Star Discovery Synscan Goto

Telescope: Orion ED80

Camera: Nikon D5300

Accessories: Orion Field Flattener for Short Refractors

Frames: 240x 30s  - ISO 1600

 

[happy-kat]

Great recent updates thanks for sharing and welcome to a new contributor.

[The Admiral]

Welcome Andrei and I'm pleased that you've found the thread useful.

You've made an excellent start too, stars nice and tight and a good rendition. There must be a bit more colour lurking in there, it's just a question of finding it . What software are you using to process? Looking forward to seeing more contributions in the future.

Ian

Edited November 9, 2019 by The Admiral

[Nerf_Caching]

Here's one from me, the classic Orion Nebula. I took this picture by mounting my SW Evostar 72ED with my Canon 650d dslr to my Nexstar 4se mount. Because it is able to sit on top of a table, all I did was plant the rig on my window sill (with the window open of course!) and snapped away. Please excuse my bad processing skills😁. Specs is as follows: I forgot exactly the number of subs, but it is an hour and a half of integration using 30 second subs at ISO 1600 with a light pollution filter. Bortle 8 skies using unmodded dslr. I've also attached my initial stacked file if you want to mess around with it, so feel free to have a fiddle!

M42 stack 2.TIF

Edited November 9, 2019 by Nerf_Caching

[happy-kat]

I'm impressed by the steady 30 seconds achieved on these posts, that's great.

[Marvin Jenkins]

Some amazing stuff on this thread. Been running for a long time, so guess the topic is really relevant.

I have a couple of pics that I am not happy with. But as soon as the weather is clear I hope to contribute to this as it seems sooooo valid.

Marvin

[Andrei Dumitriu]

On 09/11/2019 at 10:27, The Admiral said:

Welcome Andrei and I'm pleased that you've found the thread useful.

What software are you using to process?

Thanks, Ian

For stacking, I'm using the invaluable DSS, and processing goes to PhotoShop CS6. I'm also using some action scripts from Carboni, and while some are useful, other do more harm if overused, like Star Size Decrease. Keeping the star size from growing too much is something I fight with every time. What do you guys do to overcome this?

[happy-kat]

DSS settings can help here and I don't stack images with low scores or high FWHM. Set the best frame as the reference frame and use kapoa sigma clipping. I use StarTools to process.

[Andrei Dumitriu]

I'm having a low tolerance for bad frames and dump everything that looks non-round star. The total amount of capture was around 4h so I discarded basically half. Y'all know that it hurts to delete data, but it is what it is.

Thanks @happy-katfor the tips - already running like that.

[Nerf_Caching]

Two more from me again. The Sculptor Galaxy and the Helix Nebula. I am having a LOT of trouble gathering signal for the Helix Nebula. The image quality is just so poor even after an hour and a half of integration using 30 second subs! If anybody can offer me any solutions I would really appreciate it. The Sculptor Galaxy is a little better and is also an hour and a half using 30 second subs. Same equipment as before.     

[Andrei Dumitriu]

Something looks off at Helix. Was the scope pointing near a light source? What ISO was that, 1600? Any filter used? If yes, you might want to do a custom WB preset based on that filter or cut down Red a bit.

[Stub Mandrel]

Quick and dirty go at your helix, Gradient Exterminator to colour balance, curves to tidy up the background then Noel's space noise reduction action.