I knew this would be a mistake...

[Sunshine]

Let me know if it's costing you your hair, i'd like to get into DSO AP but i do like my locks.

[Marmo720]

1 hour ago, Starwiz said:

Been there too during my first midlife crisis, with 29 parachute jumps almost 30 years ago now.  Much happier these days with the ability to explore deep space. ?

Ah must have been fun though. Once you start looking at the Universe, nothing else can compares right? 

[Starwiz]

18 hours ago, Marmo720 said:

Ah must have been fun though. Once you start looking at the Universe, nothing else can compares right? 

I'd been a casual observer for many years, but always felt that I needed bigger apertures which I would never be able to afford.  Starting imaging eliminated the 'aperture fever' desire and is incredibly addictive, but also immensely satisfying.

[R26 oldtimer]

Had a go at m51 this weekend, using my bresser 150/750 Newtonian instead. I will post a picture once stacked and processed the following days. Stayed again at 30s subs, but this time I took 30x darks.?

[Starwiz]

1 hour ago, R26 oldtimer said:

Had a go at m51 this weekend

One of my favourite galaxies.  Good luck!

[Marmo720]

1 hour ago, R26 oldtimer said:

Had a go at m51 this weekend, using my bresser 150/750 Newtonian instead. I will post a picture once stacked and processed the following days. Stayed again at 30s subs, but this time I took 30x darks.?

I am looking forward to it! 

[R26 oldtimer]

This is my take on M51. I tried different stacking approaches with DSS and sequator that gave different results. I need some feedback on which you prefer, but I will also post a new thread regarding that, where I will try to upload the unprocessed stacks, in order to see what the more experienced folks can make of them!

Equipment: bresser 150/750 newt, AZEQ5 unguided, Canon 600d unmodified.  155-165 x 30sec subs + 30 darks. L.P.: plenty!

[Marmo720]

Very nice!

I prefer the 4th/5th pictures although the 5th has a slight dark halo around the galaxy? Really nice images either way.

Would you mind sending me one x30 sec sub when you are free so I can see what one sub looks like before stacking?

I got all my equipment setup for the first time this weekend and as soon as I was ready to image - the entire sky was cloudy  After I packed everything up and made a brew, the sky was completely clear. Didn't have the energy to setup again. Try again this weekend!

 

Edited April 4, 2019 by Marmo720

[R26 oldtimer]

I will post two subs ( one with the max l.p. and one with the min l.p.) when I get to my home p.c. , this evening!

[Marmo720]

23 minutes ago, R26 oldtimer said:

I will post two subs ( one with the max l.p. and one with the min l.p.) when I get to my home p.c. , this evening!

That would be great. No rush though. I just wanted to see what to expect from my own images pre-stacking/processing

 

[Nikolas74]

It is truly is addictive and once you start you want to explore the universe and make photos of it...!!!!!

i started also as a visual observer of the moon....next day i found myself buying lots of stuff didn't even know how they work...

I needed a good camera to start taking photos......and that's how i also saw my bank account going down !!!!! ?

Take care ...and keep going....

Nikolas.

[R26 oldtimer]

Here are two subs, max and min L.P.

IMG_9179.CR2IMG_9244.CR2

[Marmo720]

Thank you for sharing. It is interesting to see the huge difference stacking makes. 

For the min LP, is that from using a LP filter (which?) or post-processing? 

[happy-kat]

I would encourage you to do flats, dark flats and bias files as well.

You should really crop all stacking artifacts out of an image before processing, these are the edges where the frame drift.

Edited April 5, 2019 by happy-kat

[R26 oldtimer]

2 hours ago, Marmo720 said:

For the min LP, is that from using a LP filter (which?) or post-processing?  

No, thats just the galaxy moving upward from the horizon from about 45° to 60° before the full moon made it's appearance.

[R26 oldtimer]

19 minutes ago, happy-kat said:

I would encourage you to do flats, dark flats and bias files as well. 

Flats will be my next must-do!

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

I still haven't spent a huge load on deep sky imaging, and still enjoy visual stuff a lot. Ideally, I have my EQ3-2 with APM 80mm F/6 triplet (often with 0.8x reducer) with modded EOS550D (just 175 euro) ticking away whilst the C8 sits on the Great Polaris mount for visual work. My DSO imaging set-up is (still) cheaper than my visual kit. Flats are essential, I find. I also find I leapt ahead once I started using AstroPixelProcessor rather than Deep Sky Stacker. I still have the latter, but the former gets me much better results without too much tweaking. My favourite results so far are M42, the Flame and Horse-Head, and the Pleiades.

 

 

 

I have also experimented with the planetary cameras, and got some decent results with the ASI178MM

[R26 oldtimer]

I upped my game two weeks ago with 90sec subs. Unfortunately there was strong wind making 2/3 of 180 subs completely useless.

This is what I got from 62x90sec subs of m18-m82. ED80, azeq5 and Canon 600d.

 

 

Thinking about how to put a closure to this thread, I 've decided to revisit m17 a year after I 've started this journey last August. Until then I hope I can capture more of those summer nebulae!

Edited May 13, 2019 by R26 oldtimer
typo

[MarsG76]

Oh ow.... here come sleepless night, lethargic days, empty bank accounts but rewarding images you can call your own.... you own images that will cost a lot.... but you'll never regret it.

Great pictures you've already imaged..... 

[R26 oldtimer]

It's been about a year and a half since I took my first photo of the night sky, using my 5" F/10 achromat, my trusted TAL2M mount and an old unmodified Nikon D50. The last picture of this thread was taken with a whole new arsenal. Got an AZEQ5 mount and used the ED80, I already had. A Canon 500D which I modified to full spectrum coupled with the Optolong L-enhance. A lodestar X2c, bought for EEVA, used for guiding, allowed me to go from 30-90sec subs to 300-1800sec subs. Finally, an old laptop with APT, PHD2, Synscan Pro App, made acquisition easy while allowing me to guide, plate solve and dither.

It's been a steep learning curve, but very exciting and great fun.

So this is my shot at the Rosette nebula from this Christmas, 54x300sec, dithered without darks or flats. Stacked on DSS and processed with trial version PI, using pixelmath to produce a synthetic (fake?) SsyntheticHO image.

For the next year( I'm done with buying equipment), my goal will be to learn and master image processing. So, let the games begin!