M51, 30min, Altair 72mm, AZGTi, ZWO 178MC

[Bobby1970]

Had another go with the AZGTi in EQ mode.

Live stack of 60s (200 gain) exposures totalling 30 min. Dark frame subtraction also used, all in Sharpcap live stacking routine.

Processed in Startools and Paint.net. - Think I may have to join the Startools forum as my images always seem to look noisy/blotchy to my eyes regardless of what I do 😞

Anyway, thanks for looking 🙂

 

 

[MarkAR]

Looks pretty good. Not sure what's causing the fuzziness, initial thought was focus or too short exposure time. Could also be sampling rate of you camera/scope set up.

[Bobby1970]

10 minutes ago, MarkAR said:

Looks pretty good. Not sure what's causing the fuzziness, initial thought was focus or too short exposure time. Could also be sampling rate of you camera/scope set up.

Thanks Mark, I appreciate the comment

I may (with my limited processing ability) have over de-noised it tbh. I just can never seem to get a happy balance between noise and or uneven background. 

I have followed several Startools tutorials and my images never seem to come out anything like as good as what I see. lol.

[MarkAR]

Post processing can be a minefield, I'm only really making a start myself using a trial period of Pixinsight. It's a case of numerous small tweaks rather than aggressive whacks.

BTW, what scope/ camera/ reducer etc were you using?

Edited May 15, 2020 by MarkAR

[TerryMcK]

Looking good Bobby.

I didn't know StarTools was still around you seem to be getting good results - I use Photoshop CC 2020 myself. However I am going to get a trial on PixInsight too but going to read up/watch Youtube videos beforehand as it sounds like it has a steepish learning curve.

Edited May 15, 2020 by TerryMcK

[Bobby1970]

11 minutes ago, MarkAR said:

Post processing can be a minefield, I'm only really making a start myself using a trial period of Pixinsight. It's a case of numerous small tweaks rather than aggressive whacks.

BTW, what scope/ camera/ reducer etc were you using?

Scope was my Altair 72mm semi apo. No reducer. 

Camera is a ZWO 178mc. 

I initially started using the mount (AzGti) in alt az mode for some eeva and short exposure live stacks. 

Then i thought why not try it on EQ mode and go for longer exposures and live stack with darks then process them. 

Wonder if I would be better capturing only then stacking in DSS, maybe that would improve things. Not sure. 

 

[MarkAR]

I think you'll have more control stacking in DSS. 

Also just checked your FOV on astronomy.tools and it looks like you've cropped quite a bit to concentrate on the galaxy.  That's always very tempting but means you can accentuate any fuzzy detail and background noise.

Try a DSS stack and only crop any outlying borders.

[Bobby1970]

1 hour ago, MarkAR said:

I think you'll have more control stacking in DSS. 

Also just checked your FOV on astronomy.tools and it looks like you've cropped quite a bit to concentrate on the galaxy.  That's always very tempting but means you can accentuate any fuzzy detail and background noise.

Try a DSS stack and only crop any outlying borders.

Thanks Mark. I did crop. But part of the Autodev (stretch) in Startools is to show you where any stacking artifacts or anomalies are. But I do crop in excess of that for better framing etc. I don't routinely bin, I should probably do that also I suspect. Next chance o get o may not live stack. And use DSS see what the difference is. 

[MarkAR]

Not sure if binning would help, 2x2 would push you to the realms of under sampling.

A 1.5x barlow or powermate would get you "closer" and still be in the ok sampling range.

[Bobby1970]

17 minutes ago, MarkAR said:

Not sure if binning would help, 2x2 would push you to the realms of under sampling.

A 1.5x barlow or powermate would get you "closer" and still be in the ok sampling range.

Wouldn't that effectively increase my focal length. Thus needing more accurate tracking??

Just downloaded the latest version of Startools. Will see what that's like. And join the Startools forum. 

[MarkAR]

15 minutes ago, Bobby1970 said:

Wouldn't that effectively increase my focal length. Thus needing more accurate tracking??

Yes and depends on how good your tracking is now.

[happy-kat]

Binning is startools is worth doing and you can set the % you want.

A member posted the maths to use to work out what to use for what had, I wonder if I can find that. Nothing to do with startools but useful and for me it meant 50% binning was good.