First image for ages.

[Dbswales]

Hi everyone,

As the title suggests, this is my first image for ages. I've bought a ZWO 294MC PRO which I used through APT. The scope was my Esprit ED100 and processed through Pixinsight. I'm still finding Pixinsight a bit of a maze to work through so I've followed through some tutorials that are available on youtube and finished up with the image below. 

30 light frames of 120 secs. 

All comments and views on how to improve, with more data and Pixinsight would be really appreciated. 

Thanks.

[vlaiv]

Flats would not hurt it.

You might want to work on color balance and saturation. Not sure how to do it in PI, but I know it has some nice features like star based color calibration - try to find a tutorial on that one.

[Adreneline]

Nicely framed image.

I found PI tricky to get going with at first. I then discovered this:

http://www.lightvortexastronomy.com/tutorial-example-m31-andromeda-galaxy---dslr.html

and it helped me a lot as M31 was my first dso.

I use this site all the time when using PI (although I still use PS for manipulating colour!).

HTH

Adrian

[david_taurus83]

Hi. Nice start. I'd capture another few hours on this if possible. The 120s frames seem to work well so another 100 or so? As vlaiv has mentioned, calibration frames should clean things up nicely. Try lowering the black level a bit? Yes, Pixinsight is a bit of a beast to tame! I have the book Inside Pixinsight and I can recommend it. You kind of need to experiment with it and watch plenty of tutorials on Youtube. I've learned a few new tips with star masks, noise reduction, sharpening etc. The link above to Light Vortex Astronomy is one for your bookmarks. There is an excellent pre processing tutorial on there in great step by step detail.

[wimvb]

Nice image. You have great detail in the bright and the faint parts. As others have advised already: use flats. I can see a few dustbunnies that would disappear with flats. In the end these limit your processing, and how far you can push the data.

To boost colour, I usually either start with masked stretch (default settings) or Mark Shelley's arcsinh stretch.

[Dbswales]

Thanks for the great advice and comments guys. I have one of those light screens which I was aiming to use for flats and as the dust bunnies have been really 'in your face' with this image, it has meant that I'm currently looking where the heck I put it!! I know it's in the house somewhere...…….

I've never used it to be fair so haven't a clue how to use it, how bright it supposed to be etc etc but I'll put a search into the top and see what it brings out in the way of advice. 

Thanks again and I'll have a play around with the image over the next day or so with the tutorial mentioned above by Adrenaline and see how it turn out. 

 

[Dbswales]

Just tried the default setting in masked stretch. 

Although the noise and dust bunnies are more pronounced, I like the overall detail it's created. 

 

[wimvb]

2 hours ago, Dbswales said:

Thanks for the great advice and comments guys. I have one of those light screens which I was aiming to use for flats and as the dust bunnies have been really 'in your face' with this image, it has meant that I'm currently looking where the heck I put it!! I know it's in the house somewhere...…….

I've never used it to be fair so haven't a clue how to use it, how bright it supposed to be etc etc but I'll put a search into the top and see what it brings out in the way of advice. 

Thanks again and I'll have a play around with the image over the next day or so with the tutorial mentioned above by Adrenaline and see how it turn out. 

 

Here' my method for taking flats. At the end of a session I point the scope at zenith and suspend tracking. Then I put an embroidery hoop with abt 4 layers of white fabric and an IKEA 30 cm FLOALT led light on top. I let my imaging software take flats with an average intensity of 25000 ADU (max is 65535). Not the most elegant solution, but it works.

[Dbswales]

That's fantastic. Many thanks wimvb. ?