Stacking Problems

[ThomasF1234]

Hi everyone. So tonight i got my first acceptable DSO photo which was of M44 L_3245_ISO800_15s__38C.CR2. I used a canon 650D shootin ISO 800 with 15 second exposures. When i added my darks and flats (flats seen here) IMG_3112.CR2i got this result M44 w flats.dsssettingsso then i tried with no flats and got this M44 no flats.dsssettingsany ideas why the pictures are so light? Thank you!

[Chefgage]

What kind of processing of the pictures have you done after stacking them? It's a bit difficult to advise as you have posted the raw file in the first link. The last link you posted I am not sure what that's supposed to be?  If you post the actual picture in say JPEG format it would help.

[TerryMcK]

Looks like you have uploaded the deep sky stacker settings files for the last two links.

[TerryMcK]

Quite a bit of star trailing on the first picture which appears to be straight out of the camera. Have you used any filters on the camera?

Edited May 15, 2020 by TerryMcK

[ThomasF1234]

1 hour ago, TerryMcK said:

Quite a bit of star trailing on the first picture which appears to be straight out of the camera. Have you used any filters on the camera?

I tried to get my guide scope working but couldn't last night so that is another problem but i did not use any filters and just used my EQ3 mount with Stellarium to track

[ThomasF1234]

This is the image stacked with darks and flats that i meant to post earlier

[ThomasF1234]

1 hour ago, Chefgage said:

What kind of processing of the pictures have you done after stacking them? It's a bit difficult to advise as you have posted the raw file in the first link. The last link you posted I am not sure what that's supposed to be?  If you post the actual picture in say JPEG format it would help.

sorry, I've attached a JPEG version above

[ThomasF1234]

3 hours ago, ThomasF1234 said:

sorry, I've attached a JPEG version above

And I forgot to say I didn’t do any processing after the stacking

[ThomasF1234]

Any ideas?

[geordie85]

Have you tried bringing the histogram down then processing from there? 

[ThomasF1234]

38 minutes ago, geordie85 said:

Have you tried bringing the histogram down then processing from there? 

Thanks I’ll have a try and get back to you 

[ThomasF1234]

Thanks! This seemed to work. M44 GOOD STACK.TIF That is it with just lights and darks. STACKED GOOD W FLATS.TIFAnd that is it with Lights, darks and flats. With the flats it seems that there is a darker patch in the centre. Is this meant to happen?

Edited May 15, 2020 by ThomasF1234

[Chefgage]

On 15/05/2020 at 14:26, ThomasF1234 said:

And I forgot to say I didn’t do any processing after the stacking

Don't expect a massive improvement of the image after stacking. Mine often look worse (image is a lot darker, detail lost). But this is why you then process the image using what ever software you use (gimp for instance). Which then brings out all the detail.

[ThomasF1234]

2 minutes ago, Chefgage said:

Don't expect a massive improvement of the image after stacking. Mine often look worse (image is a lot darker, detail lost). But this is why you then process the image using what ever software you use (gimp for instance). Which then brings out all the detail.

For processing (because I don’t have anything yet) I was thinking about getting photoshop and using this astronomy tools pack https://www.prodigitalsoftware.com/AstronomyToolsOrderingInstructions.html

[Chefgage]

14 hours ago, ThomasF1234 said:

For processing (because I don’t have anything yet) I was thinking about getting photoshop and using this astronomy tools pack https://www.prodigitalsoftware.com/AstronomyToolsOrderingInstructions.html

Have a try with the GIMP software. It's free and gives you a good idea/practice at processing your images. 

[ThomasF1234]

3 minutes ago, Chefgage said:

Have a try with the GIMP software. It's free and gives you a good idea/practice at processing your images. 

Thank you I will have a look

[Chefgage]

2 minutes ago, ThomasF1234 said:

Thank you I will have a look

There are some good YouTube videos on workflows for gimp. Even with a quick 5 minutes of processing your stacked image it's surprising how much detail gimp can bring out.

Edited May 18, 2020 by Chefgage

[happy-kat]

There are several members who use GIMP here and the videos on budgetastro.net by Doug you can pretty much follow using GIMP and he covers DSS.

[ThomasF1234]

3 minutes ago, happy-kat said:

There are several members who use GIMP here and the videos on budgetastro.net by Doug you can pretty much follow using GIMP and he covers DSS.

I’ll check them out thanks

[ThomasF1234]

5 minutes ago, Chefgage said:

There are some good YouTube videos on workflows for gimp. Even with a quick 5 minutes of processing your stacked image it's surprising how much detail gimp can bring out.

Thanks for the advice

[ThomasF1234]

Just thought I'd let you all know I gave GIMP a go and go this:

Feel free to comment

[happy-kat]

Great job, and there's different star colours visible.

[ThomasF1234]

1 hour ago, happy-kat said:

Great job, and there's different star colours visible.

Thank you

 

[TerryJ]

On 18/05/2020 at 08:47, happy-kat said:

There are several members who use GIMP here and the videos on budgetastro.net by Doug you can pretty much follow using GIMP and he covers DSS.

Checked that web address but it doesn't seem to exist, I got a holding page .

[happy-kat]

It was run by Doug German and a google shows he has a FB, twitter, youtube and flkr pages

All the tutorials are on youtube in his channel down the bottom are the part 1, part 2 etc

Edited May 19, 2020 by happy-kat