My very first night trying AP... M81 & M82

[oymd]

Good evening everyone

Yesterday night has been the first clear night in a long time.

I have never yet used my ASI 294MC Pro yet, and I still do not have a guidecamera.

This is the results of 3 15 second unguided subs of M81 & M82.

I used APT, with my ED80mm without reducer, 294MC Pro & Ioptron CEM25P. This has been only the 2nd time I got the CEM25P out, as I am planning on selling it, and wanted to field test it to make sure all is OK.

No flats, darks, bias etc...I still have no idea how to do those... 

I want to give a mention to Vlad who helped me immensely use DSS to stack the frames and he processed the TIFF. He has been absolutely great!

I am over the moon!!

I know, its terrible compared to what's on the forums, but its my very first try!!

 

 

Edited March 23, 2020 by oymd

[Laurin Dave]

Well done..   all journeys start with the first step!

[teoria_del_big_bang]

Any DSO image is an achievement and honestly for a first that is very good, far better than my first efforts 🙂 

I have only been doing this for 2 years, if that, and believe me I was the same not knowing how to polar align even, and narrow band filters, flats, darks, dark flats, bias it was all just over my head, gave me a headache at first. But take things step by step, make one little improvement at a time and it comes, it really all pops into place. Loads of really good tutorials about all over on line so loads of places to get the knowledge. Enjoy the journey, it has been frustrating a lot of nights but when you get an image it all becomes worth while and very rewarding.

A guide cam will improve your images from the point of being able to take loger subs without star trails but don't rush to do that there are many targets you can get plenty of data with short subs but more of them.

Just my thoughts as a relative newbie so I am in no place to give advice.

Steve

[Adam1234]

Very good start, well done

[Marvin Jenkins]

OYMD, don’t you dare apologise. You know what you have there? Perhaps five million suns in one frame in two galaxies light years away. Lose sight of the magnitude of what you have captured and detail becomes meaningless.

I can see the two arm swirl of M81 and the notch in the centre of M82 which with more high end equipment would show hydrogen. First go, great, something to build on.

I to have a friend who helps in processing, nothing to be worried about. We can’t learn astronomy, astrophotography, stacking with darks bias and flats and be a wizz in pixinsight all at the same time, even if we could afford it, which I cannot.

Keep up the effort, I want to see more.

Marv

[oymd]

2 hours ago, Laurin Dave said:

Well done..   all journeys start with the first step!

 

2 hours ago, teoria_del_big_bang said:

Any DSO image is an achievement and honestly for a first that is very good, far better than my first efforts 🙂 

I have only been doing this for 2 years, if that, and believe me I was the same not knowing how to polar align even, and narrow band filters, flats, darks, dark flats, bias it was all just over my head, gave me a headache at first. But take things step by step, make one little improvement at a time and it comes, it really all pops into place. Loads of really good tutorials about all over on line so loads of places to get the knowledge. Enjoy the journey, it has been frustrating a lot of nights but when you get an image it all becomes worth while and very rewarding.

A guide cam will improve your images from the point of being able to take loger subs without star trails but don't rush to do that there are many targets you can get plenty of data with short subs but more of them.

Just my thoughts as a relative newbie so I am in no place to give advice.

Steve

 

20 minutes ago, Marvin Jenkins said:

OYMD, don’t you dare apologise. You know what you have there? Perhaps five million suns in one frame in two galaxies light years away. Lose sight of the magnitude of what you have captured and detail becomes meaningless.

I can see the two arm swirl of M81 and the notch in the centre of M82 which with more high end equipment would show hydrogen. First go, great, something to build on.

I to have a friend who helps in processing, nothing to be worried about. We can’t learn astronomy, astrophotography, stacking with darks bias and flats and be a wizz in pixinsight all at the same time, even if we could afford it, which I cannot.

Keep up the effort, I want to see more.

Marv

Thank you all for the very encouraging words...

I am really excited to go out again tonight..!!

 

[oymd]

15 hours ago, oymd said:

 

 

Thank you all for the very encouraging words...

I am really excited to go out again tonight..!!

 

Wouldn't you know it....

All excited yesterday to do some more imaging after I got my feet wet on the first night...

Plugged my camera into the powertank, and the small red light on the cigarette lighter would not come on...

Possibly the connector died from using it the previous night...

Anyways...not to be deterred by such a MINOR setback...decided to carry on without cooling..

All imaging was done at around 4C.

Based on Vlad's advice, took MANY MANY more subs tonight of M81 & M82, Bubble Nebula & Cats eye nebula. The pic above is based on 3 x 20 second subs, so hopefully the new result will be better.

Still at work but eager to get started on the FITT files very soon..

Watch this space...

 

[Endolf]

Good job, I'm only on about my 6th imaging session myself, you can't beat that feeling the when you start seeing the subs come in and can actually see these things, objects you've seen so many times, but this time, it's your own image, of an object thousands of light years away, I too picked M81/82 as my first galaxy target. Might have to try the Bubble and Cats eye's and compare results 

[oymd]

So, here's M81 & M82 again

I went out Monday night, and the power supply died, so was limited to do imaging at 4 degrees C.

Following Vlad's immense advice and help, I took many more subs:

50 Light, 20 seconds each

30 Darks, 20 seconds each

Still can't get my head around DARK FLATS, and FLATS, so none of those...YET...!

Stacked in DSS, and then I used GIMP to do some light processing, all myself.

I think it looks better?

Super excited!

[Marvin Jenkins]

2 hours ago, oymd said:

So, here's M81 & M82 again

I went out Monday night, and the power supply died, so was limited to do imaging at 4 degrees C.

Following Vlad's immense advice and help, I took many more subs:

50 Light, 20 seconds each

30 Darks, 20 seconds each

Still can't get my head around DARK FLATS, and FLATS, so none of those...YET...!

Stacked in DSS, and then I used GIMP to do some light processing, all myself.

I think it looks better?

Super excited!

As our friends across the pond say “knocked it out the park” well done. Nice spiral arms in the face on. You have done really well.

How did you find gimp? We are at opposites and equals right now. I have four imaging sessions under my belt but will be delving into processing this weekend.

You have one session imaging but have already processed your first image, big like from me. 👍👍👍

Marv

[oymd]

46 minutes ago, Marvin Jenkins said:

As our friends across the pond say “knocked it out the park” well done. Nice spiral arms in the face on. You have done really well.

How did you find gimp? We are at opposites and equals right now. I have four imaging sessions under my belt but will be delving into processing this weekend.

You have one session imaging but have already processed your first image, big like from me. 👍👍👍

Marv

Thanks Marv

I followed Vlad's guide, and there has been virtually NO processing involved. Just playing with COLOR LEVELS:

Here's what I did:

Stacked etc in DSS.

Opened the FIT file in Gimp, then went to Color/Levels, and just did a BASIC STRETCH.

Moved the 3 sliders around: BLACK, WHITE & GRAY levels.

And that's it!

Vlad advised on creating another layer and doing a DENOISE, but did not manage to do that, as found it too complicated.

Exported the final image as PNG and a JPEG, and that's it.

[Nicola Hannah Butterfield]

These two where amongst my first images just over two weeks ago, seems to me you know different stuff to me, but at the end of the day it about images,  The flats darks bias will come.

Edited March 26, 2020 by Nicola Hannah Butterfield