The "No EQ" DSO Challenge!

[happy-kat]

I particularly like M82. Have you tried to see if you are happier with colour correction from GIMP, there is a new version out. 

[calli]

11 hours ago, happy-kat said:

That has come out pretty good. 

Were you unable to take longer than 10 second exposures?

This day yes. I tried some more seconds but lost too much subs then so I decided to try it short. Maybe it was the rough one star align or/and my mount is EOL or needs maintanance. After the latest Maker Faire where a kid moved it by hand on both axes I needed to repair it...

On my first tries I was able to achive often 30 seconds with the Mak127@1500mm as OTA, so 310mm should not be a problem....

Carsten

[happy-kat]

Where you point in the sky does make a difference though in general M31 in the northern hemisphere is in a good easterly place for us right now for exposure length. That's unfortunate that you had to repair your mount, hopefully all is good now.

[smisy]

At september 4-5 I made a timelapse with my Huawei P10, 280x30 sec exposures, monochrome camera. Processed in Gif maker editor pro application. ISO 1000. Big light pollution, but comes some pieces from Milky way.

 

[LOL221]

17 hours ago, happy-kat said:

I particularly like M82. Have you tried to see if you are happier with colour correction from GIMP, there is a new version out. 

I never really used GIMP before, only once to draw something. I will try it now and let you know!

[calli]

6 hours ago, LOL221 said:

I never really used GIMP before, only once to draw something. I will try it now and let you know!

I did a very basic video some years ago. It got almost as much bad as good comments, so be warned ?

 

But maybe you get the idea of the workflow I use. All my images are done Alt/Az and processed in Gimp, so...

Get you a 2.10 Version to support higher bit depths. In the comments to the video you can find the de-noise plugin I used.

Carsten

[Space Oddities]

Interesting topic! Great to see what you can achieve with a limited setup  

Here is a modest contribution to the topic: I took this photo of M42 with a tripod and a Samyang 135mm on Christmas Eve last year in Switzerland  I believe I took about 200 subs of 1 (or 1.5) seconds, stacked in DSS. Pardon the strange colors, that's one of my first astro pictures and I was trying a few things back then!

I love this image, because it didn't require a heavy or expensive setup. Astrophotography can seem unreachable for many, and it did for me, but it's actually not so difficult to get decent pictures  Provided you have some time and a tripod! 

 

[happy-kat]

I can see the running man in there. That is a super image from a static tripod, the lens is a known gem.

[Space Oddities]

Indeed! It's really stellar  I started using it for daylight photography as well, and it's excellent in this field too

[Manners2020]

As messy as this is it's more than I expected to get with a none eq  set up. That being said I did see a really good one on here somewhere.  Anyway wo 72mm megrez.  Nikon d5300 about 80 40 second exposures co  astrotoaster. Iso 2500. Evolution  mount.

Edited October 17, 2018 by Manners2020

[Manners2020]

Same set up but only 20 exposures. I think my sensor  was screaming at this point as it was straight after the horsehead.

[Manners2020]

I was just dicking  about before I packed up last night here. The core of andromeda with a 9.25 sct@6.3. Same mount and camera as above but only a few 20 second exposures. This was right above my neighbour's bedroom with the light on. I hope they didnt look out. 

[Stub Mandrel]

2 hours ago, Manners2020 said:

As messy as this is it's more than I expected to get with a none eq  set up.

No shame - I've seen pics similar to that in books from the 70s!

[Manners2020]

Oh I'm pleased with it regardless.  I was aiming to make the head out at the start so yeah . I'm happy with that.

[Manners2020]

That's the hardest I've worked my camera. Also pleased and surprised at the mount tracking for 40 seconds. I'll see what I can push it to next time I use it.

[happy-kat]

The image you refer to was by The Admiral on this thread around page 80 or earlier..

[The Admiral]

6 hours ago, Manners2020 said:

As messy as this is it's more than I expected to get with a none eq  set up. That being said I did see a really good one on here somewhere.  Anyway wo 72mm megrez.  Nikon d5300 about 80 40 second exposures co  astrotoaster. Iso 2500. Evolution  mount.

A nice rendition and a difficult target.

3 hours ago, Manners2020 said:

That's the hardest I've worked my camera. Also pleased and surprised at the mount tracking for 40 seconds. I'll see what I can push it to next time I use it.

I used 122 lights of 30s each for mine (could always use more!), and the good red response of the X-T1 made all the difference. There are some very bright stars in the field, in particular Alnitak, so there is some advantage in reducing the exposure here rather than pushing it further I think, as some parts of the image appear to have blown. Also, if you can work with a lower ISO to improve the dynamic range then that is an advantage. I run my X-T1 generally at 1600 ISO (sometimes 400ISO), because a look here indicates that something odd happens at greater ISOs, possibly digital amplification. Ah, just realised you're not using the Fuji , so something odd happens, but at a higher ISO with the 5300! (see http://www.photonstophotos.net/Charts/RN_ADU.htm)

Ian

Edited October 17, 2018 by The Admiral
Realised mistake!

[Manners2020]

I will definitely  try that next time  and also next time will probably be a proper photography effort with darks ect, rather than letting astrotoaster do it all. Thanks for  the tips,  always welcome the tips.

[happy-kat]

Here's a link to the post you mentioned.

Horsehead image here

 

[LOL221]

13 hours ago, calli said:

I did a very basic video some years ago. It got almost as much bad as good comments, so be warned ?

 

But maybe you get the idea of the workflow I use. All my images are done Alt/Az and processed in Gimp, so...

Get you a 2.10 Version to support higher bit depths. In the comments to the video you can find the de-noise plugin I used.

Carsten

actually a pretty decent tutorial! I like when things are kept simple, so its easier to follow them and learn! You wrote that all your images are done AltAz, which really gives me hope todo Astrophotography with this scope https://www.astroshop.eu/telescopes/skywatcher-telescope-ac-102-500-startravel-bd-az-s-goto/p,15563 i will hopefully have the money to get it soon . Thanks for the video! One more thing... to me it seems like GIMP is almost same to Photoshop which makes it easier for me.

[LOL221]

20 hours ago, LOL221 said:

I never really used GIMP before, only once to draw something. I will try it now and let you know!

Yes, the color correction in GIMP is IMO better than in Photoshop. No idea what Photoshop is doing, but GIMP doesnt remove any nebulosity at all.

[Manners2020]

6 hours ago, happy-kat said:

Here's a link to the post you mentioned.

Horsehead image here

 

I really need to stop shying away from these post processing softwares.  

[Manners2020]

18 hours ago, happy-kat said:

Here's a link to the post you mentioned.

Horsehead image here

 

Couple more from this morning.  Wo 72mm megrez , nikon d5300 , evolution mount.  Orion was 53 50 sec exposures at 800 and andromeda  was about 30. Actually it was the other way round. This is about my fourth attempt at andromeda. Is it just me or is this one really hard to do anything with?

[Manners2020]

Tidied this one up as best as I can too.

[The Admiral]

48 minutes ago, Manners2020 said:

Couple more from this morning.  Wo 72mm megrez , nikon d5300 , evolution mount.  Orion was 53 50 sec exposures at 800 and andromeda  was about 30. Actually it was the other way round. This is about my fourth attempt at andromeda. Is it just me or is this one really hard to do anything with?

I think you've done well with those. I found M42 to be the harder of the two, because there is such a brightness range that it's difficult to to get the feinter bits without losing detail in the highlights. What many do with that target is to take two or three sets with different length exposures, one optimised for the brighter regions and the other(s) for the feinter regions, and then they're blended together. There seems to be plenty of data there, which is good. The background looks very black; is it being clipped or is it just a 'dark grey'? If it is clipped then you'll possibly lose some feinter parts of the nebula; any noise will need to be separately dealt with.

I'm not sure about M31. You've got plenty of detail in the dust lanes but the core region appears to be blown out. I don't know whether your individual subs have blown out, or whether it's the processing.

Have you looked at other astro processing software besides GIMP? StarTools is worth a look. There is a fully functioning trial, other than you can't save, but is very reasonably priced anyway. Also, can I check, you are stacking the RAW files?

Ian