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The shame...

danccat

By danccat
in Imaging - Deep Sky

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danccat

danccat

Posted
Posted

...of this first DSO image... its meant to be M42, not a lot of hope in this one i'm afraid.  So far its just stacked... I took 20 x 20 second exposures with ten darks and flats... not a great deal but sadly I worked late last night and by the time I got home and set up everything, limited my time with M42.

I guess now I ask, what can I do to improve next time?  I used my Nexstar 8SE with the celestron focal corrector/reducer on a skywatcher az eq6 mount with a modded canon eos 1100D... I know the focus is out, but I did manually set the focus prior to imaging.. I must be honest, the focus really isn't that great on this camera. The image looks tiny when compares to other great photos ive seen on here... is it my scope? 

Any advice really would be valued.

Thank you, and clear skies

post-42261-0-33698400-1426411640_thumb.j

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happy-kat

happy-kat

Posted
Posted

Focus, how long did you leave your telescope to cool down and did you check focus again once it was cool.

Focus is about your telescope not the camera as I assume there was no lens on the camera just attached direct to your telescope.

You might want to look at one of the DIY focus knob improvements that are on this site. They make it bigger and easier to fine tune.

http://stargazerslounge.com/topic/77168-peanut-butter-lid-fine-focus-knob-for-sct/?fromsearch=1

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Joves

Joves

Posted
Posted

At least we can tell what it is.... It's the coal sack, right?! ;)

Seriously though, don't be hard on yourself. I'm sure everybody starting out in AP begins taking shots like this... Or worse... Hang in there and be sure to post your progress!

Best of luck.

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Scott

Scott

Posted
Posted

At least we can tell what it is.... It's the coal sack, right?! ;)

Seriously though, don't be hard on yourself. I'm sure everybody starting out in AP begins taking shots like this... Or worse... Hang in there and be sure to post your progress!

Best of luck.

Mate, if he got the coalsack from south wales (not the new one) I don't care what it looks like :D.

The advice above is spot on though, don't knock yourself out expecting images like the ones we get on sgl. many of them have been at it since Noah was in shorts. Number one i'd say is get the focus sorted. It's far easier to do this on a laptop screen than the cameras liveview screen. remember,google/youtube are your friend. many many good tutorials to be found

good luck and keep at it. you'll get there :D

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ollypenrice

ollypenrice

Posted
Posted

Focus is very critical in this game. A Bahtinov mask would probably be your best bet on that rig. http://www.firstlightoptics.com/bahtinov-focus-masks/starsharp-bahtinov-focus-masks.html

Then you need to get to grips with Levels and Curves for stretching and for balancing the colours to lose that orange domination. Rob's is a good tutorial.

http://www.middlehillobservatory.co.uk/articles-primers/Levels%20and%20curves.htm

Your image isn't small. Your long focal length means that you have only been able to frame a small part of the nebula, the Trapezium region.

Olly

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iksose7

iksose7

Posted
Posted

I would also buy a bahtinov mask for focusing, i got one at the start of the year and dont know why i didnt sooner. Its excellent for gaining focus but remember to always check focus through out a session, especially if the temperature drops a lot.

Next thing you may want to look into is guiding, you wont gain much with 20 second subs unfortunately. Short subs for the core of M42 are ok but if you want to capture the rest then you want subs at least a couple minutes in length.

Once you can capture the data then you can focus on improving you processing game, thats the fun bit!

Callum

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Scott

Scott

Posted
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i've swapped over to apt. I paid for the full monty as it is cheap, good and I think developers should get something for what they do. it also allows for the use of ccd cameras

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lensman57

lensman57

Posted
Posted

...of this first DSO image... its meant to be M42, not a lot of hope in this one i'm afraid.  So far its just stacked... I took 20 x 20 second exposures with ten darks and flats... not a great deal but sadly I worked late last night and by the time I got home and set up everything, limited my time with M42.

I guess now I ask, what can I do to improve next time?  I used my Nexstar 8SE with the celestron focal corrector/reducer on a skywatcher az eq6 mount with a modded canon eos 1100D... I know the focus is out, but I did manually set the focus prior to imaging.. I must be honest, the focus really isn't that great on this camera. The image looks tiny when compares to other great photos ive seen on here... is it my scope? 

Any advice really would be valued.

Thank you, and clear skies

attachicon.gif4.jpg

It is unlikely that you'd be able to focus manually by just looking at the LCD screen of the camera with the FL of your scope. My focus and images were a lot worse than this when I started 18 months ago. If you can use a laptop I suggest that you try and use something like APT and the Focus assist tool to get close to perfect focus. Also as mentioned an SCT takes an awful long time to cool down so perhaps in anticipation of imaging you could leave it in a secure place like a garage to have it cooled down and ready. I understand what you say about coming back from work and starting imaging as until four weeks ago my job involved working ungodly hours and when I got home and the sky was clear there was no energy to start setting the rig up. I have been off work for four weeks due to ill health and guess what I have only had 2 or 3 " clear " nights and on one I was just too unwell to go out.

A.G

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sooot

sooot

Posted
Posted

your way from being small, I overlayed your image on to one of my attempts just to give you an idea of what sort of area your image would of picked up, its those first images that will get you hooked, no its not brilliant but you have nebulosity, its a long road that only gets better with practice and it does get better

post-29310-0-36366600-1426438057_thumb.j

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Gina

Gina

Posted
Posted

My first attempts were no better than yours!  So don't be ashamed or put off :)  Well done for posting your image and not being too embarassed - it's only by posting images that you can get the advice of other members :)  I'm sure you will soon get much better results.  An 1100D is quite a good camera to start with and you have the most important thing for astrophotography - a decent mount :)

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danccat

danccat

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Proto,wow. I had no idea, I thought I was too far out.  Problem is, my image is with the f/6.3 reducer.  The only was I can get an image like yours is by using a different scope... yes?

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