Noobs first M42

[Coco]

Seems like were all wanting to get imaging ASAP .

I was going to post in amongst other fellow members first pic post but Psychobilly is hel bent on 'OUTING' me before I get the knack.

Here goes.

My name is Guy Walsh (Coco) and this is my first M42 photo. :mrgreen:

40D , ISO 1600 , 3 secs

[CELESCOPE]

Well done Guy a very good first shot indeed mate

Rog

[Psychobilly]

There Now wrong with that the trap stars are extremely well resolved... the FOV at PF on a CPC800 is pretty darn small...

Next time take slighlty longer subs and lots off them...the satck them in DSS make sure you set teh camera to raw mode.

Billy... (Peter)

Got to dash back to the obs...

[Coco]

Thanks for the words of encouragement.. :mrgreen:

I will get a grip of this imaging one day ...

.

Guy

[barkis]

That is a superb first effort Guy. It's great to see an image clearly showing the Trapezium stars in the centre of the nebula. Long exposures cause those stars to saturate the image in the centre, so it is a rare sight.

Nice one.

Ron.

[Albireo380]

Looks like a good first effort to me, Guy - with lots of nebulosity, good colour and sharp stars. As Psychobilly said, next time take subs a wee bit longer and lots of them - it will improve the image markedly.

Tom

[Coco]

Looks like a good first effort to me, Guy - with lots of nebulosity, good colour and sharp stars. As Psychobilly said, next time take subs a wee bit longer and lots of them - it will improve the image markedly.

Tom

Can you or anyone explain what 'longer subs' actually mean?

[barkis]

What Tom means, is taking longer exposures of the object, say 15 seconds, but take a number of them, say about 15 or 20, the images you get, can be stacked on top of each other to build up a good image of the subject. In this case M42. If the 15 second images show no sign of star trailing, then take longer exposure, say 20 seconds at a time.

You can get software that will stack the frames for you.

Ron.

[Coco]

What Tom means, is taking longer exposures of the object, say 15 seconds, but take a number of them, say about 15 or 20, the images you get, can be stacked on top of each other to build up a good image of the subject. In this case M42. If the 15 second images show no sign of star trailing, then take longer exposure, say 20 seconds at a time.

You can get software that will stack the frames for you.

Ron.

But what about the horrendous noise?

I can see banding in the dark areas even at 3 seconds? :?

.

Guy

[barkis]

What banding, I didn't see any mention of banding. Can you post an Image as an example.

Ron.

[Coco]

Here is another with a 10 minute play about with ( haven't got a clue what i'm doing) deep sky stacker.

:mrgreen: This is insane... And VERY ADDICTIVE !!

.

Guy

[barkis]

Well, you did something right, you've got a picture here.

Where is the banding you mentioned.

Imaging is a whole new ballgame, and it has to be learned like anything else. Take it one step at a time. Get yourself a book on Astrophotography with a DSLR Camera, and read about it.

Capturing the images is just the start. There is the image processing to learn about too, the pair go hand in hand. You can learn it, you will learn it, and you will feel frustrated on the journey, but you'll get there, just don't expect it to happen overnight. :laughing2:

Ron.

[Coco]

Well, you did something right, you've got a picture here.

Where is the banding you mentioned.

Imaging is a whole new ballgame, and it has to be learned like anything else. Take it one step at a time. Get yourself a book on Astrophotography with a DSLR Camera, and read about it.

Capturing the images is just the start. There is the image processing to learn about too, the pair go hand in hand. You can learn it, you will learn it, and you will feel frustrated on the journey, but you'll get there, just don't expect it to happen overnight. :laughing2:

Ron.

Thanks Ron

Here is the banding

[Psychobilly]

ahhh you need to take bias frames... and add then into the file list in DSS...

Cover the Viewfinder and lens , set the cmaera to the same iso as when your capturing subs and the shortest possible shutter speed, take lots of exposures....30 or more and these are your offset bias frames in DSS...

once you satrt longer exposure you'll need darks as well...

For darks cover the telescope and viewfinder and take exposures of equal length to your light frames and at the same iso setting again quite a few if possible and add them into the mix as well in DSS...

Billy..

[MartinB]

Cracking trapezium view Guy. Nice to be able to clearly see the 4 main stars of this grouping