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The "No EQ" DSO Challenge!


JGM1971

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I have been watching some YouTube videos on startools and discovered how to use a few more of the tools, I still struggle with colour though. 

So I have been re processing most of my images with improvement. I'm sure there's a fair bit more to learn yet. Also I installed startools on my new PC and it runs 3 times quicker.  :happy7: I have posted a couple of comparisons,  the original then the newer,  

Your thoughts are welcome. 

Nige.

Omega 1st 

PSX_20160720_101517.jpg

Omega re processed 

Omega1.jpg

Andromida 135mm 1st 

PSX_20160823_192631.jpg

Andromida 135mm reprocessed 

Androm135-1.jpg

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1 hour ago, happy-kat said:

Coming back to the images today I think your second set have the edge just. I do like your 135mm lens, unfortunately mine shows a lot of CA but now I know how to process that away in startools I might try using it less stopped down as f8 is restrictive.

When I look at these images on a PC or large screen there is a huge difference between them,  when I look at them on my tablet or phone it's not so obvious.  The noise reduction is the biggest change along with improved detail.

My 135mm is a f3.6 lense, I'm pleased with the results

Nige

I'm trying to purchase StarTools atm but there seems to be a problem, I have mailed them to try and sort it out.

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Hi Nige,

Thanks for posting your 'before' and 'after' images. I'd definitely agree that on a larger screen the improvements in both second renditions is more obvious, both being much darker backgrounds and less noise.

Well done.

With our Alt-Az set ups we get to see the greater effects of light pollution and of imaging at lower altitudes through more atmosphere and the more so the fainter the object. I have come to consider that StarTools needs a certain quality of data to perform at all well, and for me the functioning of the COLOR module is the one most sensitive to poorer data.

Thanks again for posting.

Cheers,
Steve

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Isn't it great to always be able to go back to older data and reprocess it with newer tools/knowledge?

I'm still not convinced by StarTool's treatment of colour (not that I do better with other tools) but you've made a good improvement on the noise with a much enhanced contrast.

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I guess this is as good a thread as any to share my first serious imaging attempt :)

m45median_rgb_okstretch.jpg

59x10s ISO400 subs stacked in IRIS with median option. I used Bias/Offset frames, can't remember if I ended up using dark frames or not for this. No Flats though and it shows :(

Mount: SW Allview, Telescope: SW Startravel 102, Camera: Canon 1000D controlled with BYEOS

RGB was corrected in IRIS and the final stretching was done in some old PS I had laying around.

Here is the link to the Tiff that is rgb corrected in IRIS but nothing else if you want to have a go at it.

https://1drv.ms/i/s!AlIly8wmzetAhk4Ia4Fr6eI4trWP

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30 minutes ago, Stedi said:

I guess this is as good a thread as any to share my first serious imaging attempt :)

m45median_rgb_okstretch.jpg

59x10s ISO400 subs stacked in IRIS with median option. I used Bias/Offset frames, can't remember if I ended up using dark frames or not for this. No Flats though and it shows :(

Mount: SW Allview, Telescope: SW Startravel 102, Camera: Canon 1000D controlled with BYEOS

RGB was corrected in IRIS and the final stretching was done in some old PS I had laying around.

Here is the link to the Tiff that is rgb corrected in IRIS but nothing else if you want to have a go at it.

https://1drv.ms/i/s!AlIly8wmzetAhk4Ia4Fr6eI4trWP

Thanks for posting, nice image. I'll try and have a go with the file but I'm away from my main pc right now. 

Cheers,

Steve

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I apologise now to anyone who might have had a clear forecast tonight. I've just received my new camera. I've treated myself to one of the new ZWO ASI 1600 mono cooled cameras. I figure it removes the noise problems I suffer from using the DSLR (I can make darks for set point temperatures now, plus I can cool the thing to -30C). I also figure that as a mono camera I can image more in our limited capture windows - a huge boon I'm hoping. So I'm going to be trying LRGB imaging on AltAz, hopefully within the next week/month/year/century.

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1 hour ago, Stedi said:

I guess this is as good a thread as any to share my first serious imaging attempt :)

 

59x10s ISO400 subs stacked in IRIS with median option. I used Bias/Offset frames, can't remember if I ended up using dark frames or not for this. No Flats though and it shows :(

Mount: SW Allview, Telescope: SW Startravel 102, Camera: Canon 1000D controlled with BYEOS

RGB was corrected in IRIS and the final stretching was done in some old PS I had laying around.

Here is the link to the Tiff that is rgb corrected in IRIS but nothing else if you want to have a go at it.

https://1drv.ms/i/s!AlIly8wmzetAhk4Ia4Fr6eI4trWP

I wish I'd had such a good first attempt! I can definitely see the nebulosity though it needs some more processing to remove the vignette. Once that background is gone I think it will be much clearer to see. And that's just a total of 10 minutes of integration time. Imagine what you're going to achieve with an hour.

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6 minutes ago, Filroden said:

I wish I'd had such a good first attempt! I can definitely see the nebulosity though it needs some more processing to remove the vignette. Once that background is gone I think it will be much clearer to see. And that's just a total of 10 minutes of integration time. Imagine what you're going to achieve with an hour.

Yea my processing skills are pretty much nonexistant, IRIS did the heavy lifting, I tried DSS first but it couldn't remove the bias/offset properly (it showed as red vertical lines, worse on the right side). If the skies stay cloudy I will try different methods of stacking etc.

If I get clear skies I'll try longer subs 15 to 20 secs and maybe ISO800, and when I can determine the best sub lenght & ISO I'll actually move to a proper dark site and try there. But thanks for all the encouragement :D from now on I'll take flat frames also, the lack really shows :(

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If it is cloudy now and you haven't altered your lens focus you could take flats now. I have a cheat method I use light box on my android tablet and balance it on my camera lens. So far the flats taken that way make a difference so they must be good enough even if not an ideal method.

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1 hour ago, happy-kat said:

If it is cloudy now and you haven't altered your lens focus you could take flats now. I have a cheat method I use light box on my android tablet and balance it on my camera lens. So far the flats taken that way make a difference so they must be good enough even if not an ideal method.

I have already altered it so can't do this, I know there are ways to create artificial flats and I will prolly try these later.

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5 hours ago, Stedi said:

No Flats though and it shows :( / Mount: SW Allview, / but nothing else if you want to have a go at it.

https://1drv.ms/i/s!AlIly8wmzetAhk4Ia4Fr6eI4trWP

Hi, very interesting first go :) and I had not seen that mount before, thanks for showing.

I am still learning/no expert at processing, but since you offered I though I would have a practice on it. Yes, the vignetting is a bit of a problem, the nebulosity is about at the same level and size so the simple method in GIMP had a bit of trouble with it.

A quick and rather heavy-handed go resulted in this :B2m45.jpg

from this simple stretch :

B1m45.jpg

 

So it is there to be had by the more expert users of the specialist softwares :) when they come by.

It was a very quick go because I have just acquired three new ( to me ) computers with windows7 ( great leap forward ) which are confusing me at the moment :)

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Stedi,

I had a quick go at processing your image with StarTools , with a bit more time I think theres a lot more in there, its quite difficult reducing the background noise. Also the colour adjustment in StarTools is not the easiest to work with.

Thanks for posting the link.

Nige.

m45median_rgb_ok.jpg

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19 hours ago, Stedi said:

I guess this is as good a thread as any to share my first serious imaging attempt :)

59x10s ISO400 subs stacked in IRIS with median option. I used Bias/Offset frames, can't remember if I ended up using dark frames or not for this. No Flats though and it shows :(

Mount: SW Allview, Telescope: SW Startravel 102, Camera: Canon 1000D controlled with BYEOS

 

Hi Stedi, that's an excellent first go and it shows a lot of promise. Much of this astrophotography thing is about processing your image, trying to tease out tiny signals from amongst the noise. Your image suggests the presence of the nebula, and as others have shown, it really can be brought out. In doing so, though, the noise becomes apparent, and the only answer to that I'm afraid is to take a lot more frames, as the nebula is a lot less bright than the stars themselves. I'd aim for half and hour or an hour if your mount can track sufficiently accurately for that long, and you should find it a lot easier to reveal. I've yet to have a go at imaging the Pleiades, so it's useful to see what others get with their level of exposure. Keep up the good work!

Ian

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Hi guys, this is my first serious imaging that I've managed to attempt this side of Summer, and even then the clouds rolled in before I had finished! Still, up to that point the viewing seemed pretty good. I've been waiting a long time to have a good go at M31 (everyone's favourite), since my miserable attempt a year back when I was trying to image through a spotting 'scope (https://stargazerslounge.com/topic/252380-messing-about-with-m31/#comment-2751013). The mount behaved impeccably, and in the end I managed to stack 152 x 30s frames, together with flats, darks and bias. I'm pretty chuffed with what I managed to capture, though I need to refine the StarTools processing to get rid of the pink-ish core to the galaxy - that colour module again! Consider it a work in progress. The usual gear, Altair Wave 102mm triplet, TS Photoline 2" 0.79x reducer/flatener (spacing not optimised), Fuji X-T1, and Nexstar 6/8SE mount. Stacked in DSS, fiddled with in ST, and sort of finished in Lightroom.

Being predominantly in the East during imaging, it did mean that the rotation was pretty minimal. DSS showed only ~5° rotation during the whole imaging session.

M31 Sept 16 DSS1 ST1 LR1.jpg

 

Ian

Edited by The Admiral
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3 hours ago, Stub Mandrel said:

Gentle approach using photoshop & gradient exterminator.

All versions here might be better if you could upload your original TIFF.

But I did? Or what you mean by original, the one without color correction?

20 hours ago, Stedi said:

Here is the link to the Tiff that is rgb corrected in IRIS but nothing else if you want to have a go at it.

https://1drv.ms/i/s!AlIly8wmzetAhk4Ia4Fr6eI4trWP

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