An enjoyable hour on Orion

[AstroNebulee]

I've just come in from spending an hour and half viewing and imaging Orion with my Omegon lx2 tracker, unmodded Canon 450d, tamron 70-300mm lens at 300mm 5.6 1600 iso 20 secs and younogo nifty fifty 2.8 1600 iso 30 secs. (I could of gone longer on exposure but just wanted to get something before the clouds rolled in) I took a lot of subs (can't remember how many) of each along with a set of darks, flats and bias for both. After looking at CO, MO and night shift, I decided to take a chance. It was just nice to set up quickly as the skies were clearing here, slightly misty at first but higher up it was quite clear. I kind of just enjoy setting up the shot and letting the dslr just click away taking the subs. Everything was beginning to dew up a tad, I did have a dew band to keep it off lens.  I'll process the subs moro, just one thing to ask I tried to get the hump of the histogram as far away from the left hand side possible. I'll attach an image of this from my younogo nifty fifty. I know it's probably not far enough away but I was max iso and anymore on the aperture would of started making the image to light, as I could of gone to 1.8.  I'm still green on this mind you so be gentle 😉, but I enjoyed this little session as I've been waiting for this opportunity to image Orion for quite a while. Clear skies. 

Edited February 4, 2021 by LeeHore7

[AstroNebulee]

Regarding my previous post here and looking at the histogram for my 50mm prime lens at 1600iso and 30 second exposure at 2.8f. I haven't had time to process them on my laptop yet what with work, they seem pretty good judging by the screen on my dslr of a single sub and can see the flame nebula. Would it be better to do lots of subs at these settings or thinking would it be better to go for 800iso at 1 minute exposures 2.8f, or is that the same as what I was doing in theory. Clear skies......Edit... I've added the screenshot of a single sub in PS and the .tiff file of said sub. There is slight star trails to this image as its one I've quickly picked and needs the focus a bit better.

Orion-4-2-21.tif

Edited February 5, 2021 by LeeHore7

[The Lazy Astronomer]

Don't know too much about DSLR imaging, but l do know general histogram advice is to get the peak 1/4 to 1/3 off the left hand side, so you're there or there abouts.

I see a lot of advice from people saying to use iso800 to keep the noise down and increase exposure until you reach the desired level on the histogram, but I've also seen some really nice images at iso1600, so maybe that's not so important. Total integration time is key though!

Looking forward to the finished image, I really like widefield shots of Orion!

[AstroNebulee]

6 hours ago, The Lazy Astronomer said:

Don't know too much about DSLR imaging, but l do know general histogram advice is to get the peak 1/4 to 1/3 off the left hand side, so you're there or there abouts.

I see a lot of advice from people saying to use iso800 to keep the noise down and increase exposure until you reach the desired level on the histogram, but I've also seen some really nice images at iso1600, so maybe that's not so important. Total integration time is key though!

Looking forward to the finished image, I really like widefield shots of Orion!

Thank you for your advice, I think next time I try to image Orion I'll use iso 800 and a longer exposure time or the longest I can manage with my Omegon lx2 tracker before star trails appear and see if the histogram moves anymore to the right. There's such a combination of the right iso, exposure time and aperture that it's trying to get the right balance.  I do have a sw star adventurer 2i on order from flo so that'll help with longer exposures and low iso and aperture. Hopefully I'll process the image today and post it in the wide field imaging thread. Clear skies 

[Cobberwebb]

I finally got to use my Star Adventurer the other night, and I've had it since October! Stacked 26 shots at 30 seconds each at ISO800 with a Nikon Z50 and kit lens @ 250mm. Very please with my first outing with the Star Adventurer  I prefer to not go to far over ISO800 as you start getting diminishing returns, you can look up a chart showing the ISO performance of your camera.
Anyway, here is the final image, The Orion Nebula.