First Proper Deep Sky Image (M42)

[The Lazy Astronomer]

Hi all,

Below is what I consider to be my first "proper" deep sky image (as opposed to test images I took whilst trying things out).

Taken with a ZWO294MM and a Skywatcher Evoguide 50ED + Skywatcher flattener. 1 hour each RGB and approx. 2.5 hours L. Unguided so l limited myself to 60 sec subs, plus a set of shorter exposures for the core. 

Cropped quite a bit because I thought there were some artifacts at the top of the frame, but looking at other's images I think it was actually some faint dust!

Basically a complete beginner, so I'd appreciate any advice anyone has to help me improve!

Thanks. 

 

P.s. thanks @AstroRuz for your GIMP tutorial video, really helped me out trying to get my head around how to use it!

 

Edited January 26, 2021 by The Lazy Astronomer
Forgot to mention shorter exposures for the core!

[Adreneline]

You should be well pleased with that - it's about a million times better than my first image of M42. Well done on revealing the trapezium core detail.

What mount are you using?

Adrian

[knobby]

Cracking image, wether it's your first or not ! Well done.

[Tommohawk]

Yeah looks very nice to me, you're definitely on the right lines. There might be a bit more colour in there - maybe a bit of a tweak in the processing? 

[The Lazy Astronomer]

49 minutes ago, Adreneline said:

You should be well pleased with that - it's about a million times better than my first image of M42. Well done on revealing the trapezium core detail.

What mount are you using?

Adrian

Thanks very much, well pleased with it for sure, but I am always my own biggest critic, so not sure I'll ever get an image I'm completely satisfied with!

Actually forgot to mention l took some shorter exposures for the core, so this is also my first HDR image too.

The mount is an EQ6R Pro. Really wanted to get an image together so didn't experiment with longer subs, but next thing may be to work on really nailing polar alignment and seeing how well the mount tracks over longer exposures. 

[The Lazy Astronomer]

1 hour ago, Tommohawk said:

Yeah looks very nice to me, you're definitely on the right lines. There might be a bit more colour in there - maybe a bit of a tweak in the processing? 

There definitely is more colour in there. BUT, I have to dismantle the imaging train to change the filters (very short backfocus from the flattener does not allow the use of a filter wheel), and in my hurry to collect as much data as possible while the skies were clear, I made the mistake of not taking flats before changing filters and thus the flats do not remove the artifacts from the dust motes in the colour channels. Whenever l tried to pull out more colour, it introduced/exaggerated some very ugly artifacts.

L was the last channel I took, and I didn't disturb the imaging train between the last L image Saturday night and the L flats on Sunday morning, so that channel is pretty well corrected, but RGB much less so...

Anyone got any clever processing tricks to reduce dust mote artifacts?

Edited January 26, 2021 by The Lazy Astronomer

[AstroRuz]

16 hours ago, The Lazy Astronomer said:

Hi all,

Below is what I consider to be my first "proper" deep sky image (as opposed to test images I took whilst trying things out).

Taken with a ZWO294MM and a Skywatcher Evoguide 50ED + Skywatcher flattener. 1 hour each RGB and approx. 2.5 hours L. Unguided so l limited myself to 60 sec subs, plus a set of shorter exposures for the core. 

Cropped quite a bit because I thought there were some artifacts at the top of the frame, but looking at other's images I think it was actually some faint dust!

Basically a complete beginner, so I'd appreciate any advice anyone has to help me improve!

Thanks. 

 

P.s. thanks @AstroRuz for your GIMP tutorial video, really helped me out trying to get my head around how to use it!

 

Very nice result there mate. Nice image. Great detail in the trapezium as well! A bit more vibrance maybe to help bring the pinks and blues out a touch and you'r eonto a winner

You're welcome for the GIMP tutorials as well, I'm glad they're being useful for you. I have more planned just need to record and edit them. 

As for the dust motes, are you taking flat frames? https://youtu.be/yrKAlD6HHQ8

 

Also any improvements, perhaps try some star reduction if you haven't already. Even a little can add more punch to your images by reducing the overall brightness - but drawing more attention to the DSO in frame https://youtu.be/0h7gAwrHLco

 

[ParallaxPete]

Fantastic image. I'm hoping to get the chance to image this before it disappears for the year. If it's even half as good as this I'll be pleased 😀

[The Lazy Astronomer]

7 hours ago, AstroRuz said:

Very nice result there mate. Nice image. Great detail in the trapezium as well! A bit more vibrance maybe to help bring the pinks and blues out a touch and you'r eonto a winner

You're welcome for the GIMP tutorials as well, I'm glad they're being useful for you. I have more planned just need to record and edit them. 

As for the dust motes, are you taking flat frames? https://youtu.be/yrKAlD6HHQ8

 

Also any improvements, perhaps try some star reduction if you haven't already. Even a little can add more punch to your images by reducing the overall brightness - but drawing more attention to the DSO in frame https://youtu.be/0h7gAwrHLco

 

Thanks 😁 I'm really pleased with how the trapezium turned out. Spent a while trying to get it to not look too 'fake'. 

Haven't tried any star reduction, but looking cloudy every night this week, so plenty of time to go back and try some reprocessing.

I did take flats, but I did not do them well (see my previous post). They may even be creating more problems than they're solving, so will possibly try restacking without them, although l think the vignetting may then cause me problems...

I look forward to more tutorials in the future!

[Spacecake2]

On 26/01/2021 at 10:41, Adreneline said:

You should be well pleased with that - it's about a million times better than my first image of M42. Well done on revealing the trapezium core detail.

What mount are you using?

Adrian

Me too 😅

[Spacecake2]

I think your image is inverted...

[dazza1639]

That's a fantastic image.

[The Lazy Astronomer]

23 hours ago, Spacecake2 said:

I think your image is inverted...

You're right, it would appear to be upside down. I think there's an argument to be made though, that technically there is no such thing as correct orientation for objects in space (that's my excuse, anyway).

[Allinthehead]

That's a very fine first. You must be pleased.

[Rustang]

Lovely image 👍 When you say '"taken with a ZWO294MM and a Skywatcher Evoguide 50ED" are you actually using the 50ED Evoguide as the imaging scope? or am I just miss reading it!?

Edited January 29, 2021 by Rustang

[The Lazy Astronomer]

12 minutes ago, Rustang said:

Lovey image 👍 When you say '"taken with a ZWO294MM and a Skywatcher Evoguide 50ED" are you actually using the 50ED Evoguide as the imaging scope? or am I just miss reading it!?

Thanks. ☺

No, you are reading it right, the Evoguide is being used as the imaging scope here. 

The reason I bought it was for dual purpose use as a guide scope and for use as a widefield imaging scope in its own right. 

[Rustang]

10 minutes ago, The Lazy Astronomer said:

Thanks. ☺

No, you are reading it right, the Evoguide is being used as the imaging scope here. 

The reason I bought it was for dual purpose use as a guide scope and for use as a widefield imaging scope in its own right. 

Cool, seems more than capable then!

[Kon]

Pretty impressive for first attempt!

[The Lazy Astronomer]

53 minutes ago, Rustang said:

Cool, seems more than capable then!

Yes, but with some limitations. It has strong field curvature without a flattener, so you're limited to very small sensors or a very large crop. With the flattener, there is only 17.5mm of back focus, so can only be used with a dedicated astro camera.

[peter shah]

if that was my first image Id be very pleased....Great shot.... lovely detail....

[Neko]

looks great! would be interesting to see the whole image too! 

I've bought it also for gudiescope and hoped for wide field AP but my qhy8L has 20mm backfocus so for now will wait to get

the flattener...until I can get another camera with shorter backfocus haha

 

[The Lazy Astronomer]

14 minutes ago, Neko said:

looks great! would be interesting to see the whole image too! 

I've bought it also for gudiescope and hoped for wide field AP but my qhy8L has 20mm backfocus so for now will wait to get

the flattener...until I can get another camera with shorter backfocus haha

 

Thanks. I bought a licence for StarTools earlier this week, so will probably have a go at reprocessing this weekend.

You might be alright with 20mm - I use mono+filters the filter takes up a couple of mm of the threads so the camera doesn't fully mate with the flattener and it seems pretty good across most of the frame. The stars streak a bit near the edges so I have to crop 15%ish off, but still a decent usable area. 

[Neko]

2 minutes ago, The Lazy Astronomer said:

Thanks. I bought a licence for StarTools earlier this week, so will probably have a go at reprocessing this weekend.

You might be alright with 20mm - I use mono+filters the filter takes up a couple of mm of the threads so the camera doesn't fully mate with the flattener and it seems pretty good across most of the frame. The stars streak a bit near the edges so I have to crop 15%ish off, but still a decent usable area. 

That's good to know! thank you!  Is it a filter wheel or filter drawer? To know more or less the distance you're adding. Since you say you crop only the edges, might be able too. Although  my qhy8L is APS-C so a bit bigger than the sensor on the ASI294.. I guess I'd have to crop more 😕

And about the StarTools, I use it too   in case you haven't seen it, there's an unoficial manual with many tips and tutorials for downloading in the same page where you get the main software ^^ ( I did the translation into Spanish of the 1.6version, and working on the latest 1.7 now : )  is very usefull manual!) 

 

Carles.

[The Lazy Astronomer]

18 hours ago, Neko said:

That's good to know! thank you!  Is it a filter wheel or filter drawer? To know more or less the distance you're adding. Since you say you crop only the edges, might be able too. Although  my qhy8L is APS-C so a bit bigger than the sensor on the ASI294.. I guess I'd have to crop more 😕

And about the StarTools, I use it too   in case you haven't seen it, there's an unoficial manual with many tips and tutorials for downloading in the same page where you get the main software ^^ ( I did the translation into Spanish of the 1.6version, and working on the latest 1.7 now : )  is very usefull manual!) 

 

Carles.

I attach the filter as described in the first post here:

 

I've looked at the manual, but not really read it. I've been playing around with some images, but do need to read the manual properly to understand what all the options and sliders actually do!