First M45

[LaVey]

Hi guys.. finally got out with the 350D and got it mounted on top of the C6s. Got around 30 different shots of M45, trying diff exposure times and iso's (still learning what does what!), the shots here were a mix of iso 400/800 over 30seconds, total 6mins exposure.

I think i was expecting more nebulosity.. is this too short for this.? Am waiting for xmas to get my remote to get it into bulb mode so can do longer than 30 sec exposures.

Anyway.. here are a couple of what i got tonight, all comments welcome:

DSS stacked image, dropeed to 8bit in photoshop to convert to png:

Bit of curves and level manipulation in photoshop:

Over done, i'm sure I can nebulosity in there :

[gary1968]

Nice images lavey, there is deffo a hint of neb. in the last shot. thanks for sharing.........

Gary

[LostNSpace]

The 1st 2 images arent bad......You can see the nebulosity coming through on the 2nd image.........Nice round stars too....

The RS will certainly make a difference LaVey.......

Once you start using the RS it`ll give you a chance to see how long you can take exp`s for before startrails with your setup......Im guessing your unguided?

60 to 90 sec subs will start to bring out more of the neb.......If you can break through the 90sec mark, great....The longer the better..........

Did you shoot this image in Jpeg or RAW format?? Try sticking to RAW if you can, set at ISO800, i wont entertain Jpegs now........

Longer subs and lots of them, making sure you add darks and flats into the mix and you will be well on your way.......

Mark

[LaVey]

Thanks for the comments,

Yeah am unguided, got the camera strapped to the C6s.. looks a proper bodge job! All shot in raw format and using the 'long exposure noise reduction' function.. how would i take darks and flats if to do it manually?

Will have another go weather permitting at iso 800 only..

Cheers.

[jgs001]

Looking good LaVey. Don't use the noise reduction in camera, that effectively applies a dark per frame, which is why it takes twice as long. To take a dark, cap the scope and shoot with exactly the same settings. So if you shoot 60 secs at ISO800, and have captured say 30 frames, then grab a number of 60s ISO800 frames with the lens cap on the scope. As I'm limited in light exposure time, I normally grab a larger number, and then at least 10 to 15 darks. Seems to work ok for me.

[Taff]

Weldone on your first capture of M45.Taff

[SteveL]

Please use jpg versions of your images in future posts, the PNG files you have just posted are huge and take a long time to load (the first one as an example is over 3Mbytes!)

[LaVey]

sorry about the files sizes... had trouble getting them from raw/tif into png.. have just had a play and seen that if i opem in ps again it allows me to save as jpeg.. is there a smarter way of doing this than closing and reopening?

[Reggie]

Use Save as or Save for web, save as will give loads of options for file formats and save for web will give you loads of different compression and quality options as well as web based image formats to choose from.