Andromeda, Pleiades & Dumbbell Nebula - TIFs

[varius21]

Hello,

Tonight was my very VERY first session of "astrophotography" if you can call it that in my case.
I managed to set up my new eq6-r with my zenithstar 73 and my dslr and used ASIAIR pro to capture some images of M27, M31 and M45.

Since it was my very first attempt and I am a complete newbie, I didn't do much research on exposure times etc so I used today as a "Test shoot"

I captured:
Andromeda 10 x 30 second exposures.
Pleiades 10 x 30 second exposures.
Dumbbell Nebula 10 x 60 second exposures (if I remember correctly).

However all the tutorials I watched for post processing didn't do me any good. I need to LEARRRRN!
Here are the 3 stacked tifs. I was wondering if anything half decent can come out of them?

If anyone wants to give it a try...
Thanks

m27.TIFm31.TIFpleiades.TIF

m27.TIF m31.TIF pleiades.TIF

[Grant93]

Hello there!

I gave your m45 a try out of interest, but as suspected 5 minutes data brought out a lot of noise 😱 So my result was not worth posting (infact I gave up quite early!). But at the same time, I am also very much a noob!

What equipment are you using out of interest?

Lucky for us in the midlands, it should be a clear night from 8pm to around 1am if the websites are correct, enough time to spend 4-5 hours on one target. This makes processing very very much easier by improving you signal to noise ratio, the differences was clear to me when I tried processing 1 hours worth of data, then stacked another 3 hours on top of the same image, and tried again. The difference as suspected was night and day.

Also get use to taking caliberation frames, especially flats, I noticed a lot of dust bunnys on the picture.

Cheers

Grant

[scotty38]

Here's the M31 with nothing other than a basic stretch and gradient removal. If nothing else you may need some flats to get rid of the dust etc.

Good first attempt though.

 

[ollypenrice]

44 minutes ago, scotty38 said:

Here's the M31 with nothing other than a basic stretch and gradient removal. If nothing else you may need some flats to get rid of the dust etc.

Good first attempt though.

 

I don't think flats will help, here. Those dark blobs are sharp, which means their source is probably on the chip. I'll see if they are the same on M45 if the internet allows.

Olly

[scotty38]

19 minutes ago, ollypenrice said:

I don't think flats will help, here. Those dark blobs are sharp, which means their source is probably on the chip. I'll see if they are the same on M45 if the internet allows.

Olly

True Olly, good point

[ollypenrice]

26 minutes ago, scotty38 said:

True Olly, good point

Then again, when I stretched M45 I found that the dark patches had about 2/3 the brightness of the background so maybe there is enough signal there for division by flats to help. The only way is to try.

However, they are a dead easy fix in Photoshop. Just pick up a clone stamp of adjacent sky, set the mode to lighten and stamp over them. In lighten mode any stars nearby will be unaffected. I did that below.

There's a lot of good stuff in the M45 image if you work on the cosmetics. The stars are well focused and round and the background is pretty flat. I got the colour balance in one go using ABE in Pixinsight. The rest done in Photoshop. With this kind of data the OP would get huge benefits from Noel's Actions (now Pro Digital Astronomy Tools. I used Increase Star Colour, Deep space noise reduction, Remove Vertical Banding and Remove Horizontal banding. Obviously, with so few subs and such short ones there isn't going to be much nebulosity. But this is a good start in imaging.

 

Olly

 

[varius21]

Thank you all so very much for giving it a try and giving me tips.

tonight if the sky is clear I will shoot for longer.

setup is EQ6-R pro with WO z73, flattened and canon 1100d with IR filter removed.

I will see tutorials for flats, darks and bias tonight.

How do I know what ISO to use, how long of exposure and how many repeats?

 

thank you 🙏 🙂

[Grant93]

6 minutes ago, varius21 said:

Thank you all so very much for giving it a try and giving me tips.

tonight if the sky is clear I will shoot for longer.

setup is EQ6-R pro with WO z73, flattened and canon 1100d with IR filter removed.

I will see tutorials for flats, darks and bias tonight.

How do I know what ISO to use, how long of exposure and how many repeats?

 

thank you 🙏 🙂

As far as ISO and exposure is concerned, if you give it a google, usually there will be someone whos made a graph of best iso to use for the model of your camera. Usually 800 or 1600. Regarding exposure (Again, could be wrong, I'm also a noob) its restricted to two things;

Star trails - as long as you can go without stars trailing.

Light pollution - After you take the image, have a look at what the histogram tells you. Ideally I believe the peak needs to be just to the left of the middle. If the histogram is too far to the right and your image is bright, then you need to lower the exposure, if the image is very dark, and the histogram is to the far left, then you can increase exposure (Unless your stars are trailing).

Hope this helps!

Grant

[Budgie1]

Here's a link to info about taking calibration frames. As you're currently using  the EOS 1100D then I wouldn't worry too much about Darks, just start with Flats & Bias frames, maybe Dark-Flats as well.

The EOS cameras tend to work well with an ISO of 800 or 1600. Go for the longest exposures you can without the stars trailing and take as many frames as you can. The exception is the likes of M31 or M45 where the core is bright and sticking to 30-60 second exposures means you don't over expose the core but still capture the detail in the dust lines.

Don't be tempted to target hop! Choose one target for the night and stick with it. The more time on a target, the better the final stacked image.

[ollypenrice]

1 hour ago, Budgie1 said:

Here's a link to info about taking calibration frames. As you're currently using  the EOS 1100D then I wouldn't worry too much about Darks, just start with Flats & Bias frames, maybe Dark-Flats as well.

The EOS cameras tend to work well with an ISO of 800 or 1600. Go for the longest exposures you can without the stars trailing and take as many frames as you can. The exception is the likes of M31 or M45 where the core is bright and sticking to 30-60 second exposures means you don't over expose the core but still capture the detail in the dust lines.

Don't be tempted to target hop! Choose one target for the night and stick with it. The more time on a target, the better the final stacked image.

One target for the month! 😁

Olly

[barbulo]

3 hours ago, varius21 said:

How do I know what ISO to use

ISO 1600 is supposed to be the sweet spot for that camera. However I'd try with 800 as well and compare.

3 hours ago, varius21 said:

how long of exposure

As mentioned, depends on the target: the brighter the shorter. I would go from 30s to 180s depending on the brightness. Always preventing star trails.

3 hours ago, varius21 said:

how many repeats

As many as possible. More integration time = higher SNR = less noise = better images. As stated by @ollypenrice, several days, even weeks, for a single target.

And clear nights, of course. Be sure you book them. 

Edited October 30, 2021 by barbulo

[varius21]

26 minutes ago, barbulo said:

ISO 1600 is supposed to be the sweet spot for that camera. However I'd try with 800 as well and compare.

As mentioned, depends on the target: the brighter the shorter. I would go from 30s to 180s depending on the brightness. Always preventing star trails.

As many as possible. More integration time = higher SNR = less noise = better images. As stated by @ollypenrice, several days, even weeks, for a single target.

And clear nights, of course. Be sure you book them. 

Thank you very much

[varius21]

2 hours worth of data including flats and bias with post-processing following half a tutorial.

[Clarkey]

That's a great improvement. Well done👍

[Grant93]

One to be proud of that! Nice one!

[varius21]

2 hours ago, Clarkey said:

That's a great improvement. Well done👍

 

1 hour ago, Grant93 said:

One to be proud of that! Nice one!

Thank you both! It’s great to see some improvement and your money paying off for the first time 😄

[scotty38]

Massive improvement, nice one!