My first serious go at a DSO The Pinwheel Galaxy.

[Moonshed]

I started  digital astrophotography around two months ago, and was clueless, messing around with M31 and M42, made a lot of mistakes and moved on until I got better images of them. Last night I decided to try and image an object I can barely make out in my 8" Celestron, the Pinwheel Galaxy. I took 30 x 90 sec subs at 800 asa. I had a quick go at in PS using Levels and Curves, I have yet to learn Masks and Layers but I will study a tutorial on YouTube for that, so there is a lot of room for improvement. Anyway, it's a start, and errors accepted, I can't deny I am pleased with it. ? I will improve over time.

[Stub Mandrel]

Hang on to your data, once you can do the curves and levels you will be amazed at what you find in there!Insert other media

[Moonshed]

5 minutes ago, Stub Mandrel said:

Hang on to your data, once you can do the curves and levels you will be amazed at what you find in there!Insert other media

Yes, I am keeping all the original data so that once I have mastered all the processing needed in PS I will be able to return to the data and make a better image.

[MARS1960]

Good effort, i was well chuffed when i got my 1st image too.

I was where you are 6 months ago and my images are far from good now but they are lots better than they were 6 months ago.

I also find much of it is down to processing the data you get but it soon comes together once you learn a few new techniques.

[Stub Mandrel]

It's amazing how your processing improves over about a year/18 months. I recently picked up some tips from a tutorial that has meant i can go back and pull all sorts of detail out of some old subs.

 

[cjdawson]

Looking at that image, I think you have over clipped the black.  The background of your image should not be black, it should really be a dark grey.     When you are doing the levels and curves don't clip the black data until the last possible moment.    This way you'll be able to bring out all that lovely fine detail which is barely registering.

Looks like you have the data for a fantastic image.

Good effort.

[Astrosurf]

Nice one! Also, try not to overdo the white point either. Put some control points at the top of your Curves line, while stretching, to stop the white point over-blowing. And only use the left and middle sliders in Levels.

Alexxx

[Moonshed]

20 hours ago, cjdawson said:

Looking at that image, I think you have over clipped the black.  The background of your image should not be black, it should really be a dark grey.     When you are doing the levels and curves don't clip the black data until the last possible moment.    This way you'll be able to bring out all that lovely fine detail which is barely registering.

Looks like you have the data for a fantastic image.

Good effort.

Thanks cjdawson, I will try that and see if Ican bring out more detail.

[Moonshed]

17 hours ago, Astrosurf said:

Nice one! Also, try not to overdo the white point either. Put some control points at the top of your Curves line, while stretching, to stop the white point over-blowing. And only use the left and middle sliders in Levels.

Alexxx

Thanks Alexxx, I haven't heard that before about control points in the Curves so will give that a go. I expect that is the reason why the centre of the galaxy is overexposed. 

[happy-kat]

The website budgetastro.net has some great learning workflows to get started with imaging processing. Although using photoshop you can still pretty much follow them using gimp or paintshop pro.

[Astrosurf]

1 hour ago, Moonshed said:

Thanks Alexxx, I haven't heard that before about control points in the Curves so will give that a go. I expect that is the reason why the centre of the galaxy is overexposed. 

I put two Control Pts close together roughly where I've marked here. Adjust to suit.

 

 

[Moonshed]

2 hours ago, Astrosurf said:

I put two Control Pts close together roughly where I've marked here. Adjust to suit.

 

 

Thanks for the screen shot, that is a big help. I have to say my curves look nothing like that, they tend to have one major spike and a spread near the base line. Anyway, I will try doing th same to see the result it produces on my images.