My best image yet!

[william_swe1]

I have just finishd my first real result. I used a Canon 6d and a cheap mirror lens tracked on a star Adventurer. I took about 20x 30s images and stacked them. I andra really happy with it but i think it need more detail and colour.

Any tips or sugestions for my next imaging session?

[Stub Mandrel]

Well done!

Flats will help you get a better result, but that image has lots of potential for further processing, perhaps starting with an auto balance.

[wimvb]

Looks very good already. 30 seconds is really short, so to compensate, you need a LOT of exposures. 20 exposures is only 10 minutes worth. If you spend a total time of at least one hour on this target, you'll see the noise come down.

What software do you use for stacking and processing? The lack of colour can be caused by incorrect deBayering.

[william_swe1]

12 hours ago, wimvb said:

Looks very good already. 30 seconds is really short, so to compensate, you need a LOT of exposures. 20 exposures is only 10 minutes worth. If you spend a total time of at least one hour on this target, you'll see the noise come down.

What software do you use for stacking and processing? The lack of colour can be caused by incorrect deBayeri

 

 

I will buy a remote intervalometer until next time.

I used deepskystacker for stacking and gimp for editing. The problem is that i have no idea of how to use gimp. I have just used the curve tool under the colour tab.

Also what is deBayeri?

[wimvb]

18 minutes ago, william_swe1 said:

Also what is deBayeri?

Every colour camera has a tiny filter on top of every pixel. In a 2x2 pixel square there are one red, two green and one blue sensitive pixels. This is called a Bayer matrux. Depending on brand and model, the exact arrangement of these filters can differ, but the image header has this information. The "raw" image, as it comes out of the camera is black and white. Software can use the header information to create a colour image from the b/w image and the Bayer matrix layout. This process is called deBayering. When you stack raw images, the calibration process (subtracting dark and bias, dividing with flat) isdone on the raw image, before deBayering. But alignment and stacking (averaging of all the images) is done after. DSS should incorporate this in the stacking process. There are settings for this in the program. If you use the wrong settings, images can either come out as b/w or with funny looking colours. Check put the DSS documentation for more information on this.

And while youre atit, check out this book as well. Highly recommended.

https://www.firstlightoptics.com/books/making-every-photon-count-steve-richards.html

[wimvb]

1 hour ago, william_swe1 said:

gimp for editing

Which version of GIMP do you use?

2.8 is only for 8 bit "daytime" images. You need v 2.9 (or 2.10?)

[william_swe1]

1 hour ago, wimvb said:

Which version of GIMP do you use?

2.8 is only for 8 bit "daytime" images. You need v 2.9 (or 2.10?)

I use v 2.10. The problem is that i have never used any editing software besides Windows paint. I have no clue what anything does. Is there any good tutorial or any other free options?

[Stub Mandrel]

The book Wim linked to give an introduction. There are also lots of threads on here and also video tutorials on YouTube.

 

[happy-kat]

Much of what can be d done in Photoshop can be done in gimp except for action scripts. I found the video guides on budgetastro.net by Doug very helpful when starting from scratch plus the book suggested is good.

[wimvb]

I'm not familiar with budgetastro, but I don't think there are many tutorials on GIMP that cover astrophotography. But as @happy-kat wrote, what can be done in PS, can be done in GIMP. At least as far as the basic stuff is concerned. This forum is a great resource if you get stuck.