Having another go...

[Paul2019]

Hello again! 

 

I found myself with some extra time on my hands and decided to get my old kit out and have a whirl. Looking at all the fab images on here really motivated me to try again after last time with my iffy results I figured I would go back to basics. So on the 26/07 I got out under some awesome skies and had a whirl at some widefield. Aiming at Vega this is what I achieved at 24mm (crop factor 1.6). 

 

Canon 400d, kit lens @ 24mm. ISO 800, 4 x 300s Lights & 2 x Darks. No flats, No bias. Using star adventurer mini. 

I think there's lots to say about it, 

Firstly soooo much noise, obviously ISO was too high, exposures in the heat with an old crappy sensor are basically the issue here. 

Secondly I think the SAM did pretty well with the longer exposures

Thirdly I think the image is lacking interest? Maybe its the composition and i need to think about compositing my wide fields to make them more interesting. 

Lastly this was done in SIRIL, I also did some in photoshop and tried astropixel processor but couldn't really get it where I was hoping but being color blind means i find processing really hard and I'm hoping SIRIL will be my savior here lol!

 

So hard lessons from a good night out,

I've got a new camera on the way (Canon 2000d) and got myself a nifty fifty to go with it. Longer term I would like to upgrade my mount to a NEQ6 and then consider a scope of sorts further down the line and really see where it all takes me. 

Next session (tonight?) with the 400d Ill be doing 120s lights and go for a full set of calibration frames and open up the lens to 18mm and see what I can achieve, I would like an awesome milky way widefield before Orion pokes his head out again. 

But I do think a new camera with a newer sensor with less hot pixels etc will help me progress in the direction I want too. 

 

Anyhow, its nice to poke my head in to say hello again!

 

 

[Clarkey]

Hey it's a start. It is focus and the stars are pretty round. Good start I would say.

800 iso is probably about right for the Canon. I would forget the darks and run some bias frames and flats plus increase the integration time.

In terms of framing, have a look on Stellarium or similar for some interesting areas of sky.

[Paul2019]

On 29/07/2022 at 22:07, Clarkey said:

Hey it's a start. It is focus and the stars are pretty round. Good start I would say.

800 iso is probably about right for the Canon. I would forget the darks and run some bias frames and flats plus increase the integration time.

In terms of framing, have a look on Stellarium or similar for some interesting areas of sky.

Thanks, 

 

I don’t know what it is but I’m really not happy with it. I did get out the other evening and tried 200 ISO which was much much better will get it finished and posted today hopefully 

[andymw]

I hope you don't mind, but I took your image above and with a bit of tweaking ended up with the image below.  I had to remove the stars, stretch the background and then add the stars back in.  I didn't spend too long on it, but it does show you have some detail there.  Also, working on a small jpeg never really works that well.  FWIW:  I also tended to use 300secs at ISO800 on my old Sony NEX5N, however I would take a lot more than 4 frames.  Just out of interest, what lense were you using and what was the f-stop that was selected?

 

Edited August 1, 2022 by andymw

[jm3]

That's amazing.

I can only see 3-4 stars from my backyard with my eyes. What's your approximate location? I was trying to get my bearing in the image and expected to see the Lyra double double at 7 o'clock underneath Vega but I think that's them at 9 from Vega. 

[Paul2019]

4 hours ago, andymw said:

I hope you don't mind, but I took your image above and with a bit of tweaking ended up with the image below.  I had to remove the stars, stretch the background and then add the stars back in.  I didn't spend too long on it, but it does show you have some detail there.  Also, working on a small jpeg never really works that well.  FWIW:  I also tended to use 300secs at ISO800 on my old Sony NEX5N, however I would take a lot more than 4 frames.  Just out of interest, what lense were you using and what was the f-stop that was selected?

 

Wow!!! What did you use to process that? 
 

I took it using the canon kit lens 18-55mm mkII. I had to stop it down to F5.6 to combat the coma

 

I got another go the other night but haven’t managed to process it yet but with the iso at 200 the noise is much better I got a pixinsight trial which bought it out pretty nice but only 15mins of lights so I didn’t expect much plus I’m pretty new at processing too. 
 

I have my nifty and new body now so just waiting for a clear night to give that a try. 
 

Thanks for the image though it’s really encouraged me to keep at it 

[Paul2019]

2 hours ago, jm3 said:

That's amazing.

I can only see 3-4 stars from my backyard with my eyes. What's your approximate location? I was trying to get my bearing in the image and expected to see the Lyra double double at 7 o'clock underneath Vega but I think that's them at 9 from Vega. 

Hey,

 

yeah that’s the double at 9 o’clock. Taken in bortle 4 skies in south Devon uk

[andymw]

46 minutes ago, Paul2019 said:

Wow!!! What did you use to process that? 
 

I took it using the canon kit lens 18-55mm mkII. I had to stop it down to F5.6 to combat the coma

 

I got another go the other night but haven’t managed to process it yet but with the iso at 200 the noise is much better I got a pixinsight trial which bought it out pretty nice but only 15mins of lights so I didn’t expect much plus I’m pretty new at processing too. 
 

I have my nifty and new body now so just waiting for a clear night to give that a try. 
 

Thanks for the image though it’s really encouraged me to keep at it 

Keep going please as you are getting there using pretty minimal equipment (I did the same a couple of years ago).  I used Pixinsight, but the main thing in doing so was to use Starnet++ to remove the stars on the main image and to create a star mask (just the stars on their own). I then used various stretching tools to get the background and colours like I wanted.  Once that was done, you can use Pixelmath to add the stars back in.  Starnet++ is also available for Photoshop, so no need to splash out lots of money on PixInsight just yet (although it is worth every penny eventually).

FWIW:  300 secs, ISO800 at F5.6 is about right (the noise will drop as you stack more images).  You'd only need to drop the exposure time by about a half for bright objects like the centre of M31 (Andromeda).

Edited August 1, 2022 by andymw

[Paul2019]

2 minutes ago, andymw said:

Keep going please as you are getting there using pretty minimal equipment (I did the same a couple of years ago).  I used Pixinsight, but the main thing in doing so was to use Starnet++ to remove the stars on the main image and to create a star mask (just the stars on their own). I then used various stretching tools to get the background and colours like I wanted.  Once that was done, you can use Pixelmath to add the stars back in.  Starnet++ is also available for Photoshop, so no need to splash out lots of money on PixInsight just yet (although it is worth every penny eventually).

Thanks for getting back to me, 

From my extremely limited experience of pixinsight I really like it. I just need to do more tutorials and learning on it. Fairly confident it will likely be my next Astro purchase followed by a Samyang 14mm f2.8 for better widefield, then a heq5 or possibly an eq6 to future proof better. 
 

To be honest now I have my new camera (2000d) and a decentish prime lens my main focus will be getting more data. Hopefully by winter I’ll have enough for a big mosaic of the Cygnus, Lyra, Hercules region. 
 

I’ll have a read up on starnet and see if I can get close to replicating your image. Thanks 

 

Paul 

[andymw]

49 minutes ago, Paul2019 said:

Thanks for getting back to me, 

From my extremely limited experience of pixinsight I really like it. I just need to do more tutorials and learning on it. Fairly confident it will likely be my next Astro purchase followed by a Samyang 14mm f2.8 for better widefield, then a heq5 or possibly an eq6 to future proof better. 
 

To be honest now I have my new camera (2000d) and a decentish prime lens my main focus will be getting more data. Hopefully by winter I’ll have enough for a big mosaic of the Cygnus, Lyra, Hercules region. 
 

I’ll have a read up on starnet and see if I can get close to replicating your image. Thanks 

 

Paul 

I currently have an HEQ5 Pro that my wife gave me as a present.  I have belt-modded it/upgraded all its bearings and it is working well with my 8" Skywatcher 200PDS scope with filter wheel, autofocusser, cooled mono camera, OAG and guiding camera (I get about 0.6 arc secs RMS guiding).  All that said:  I would actually recommend you going for the EQ6 R Pro if you can afford it as it will give you much more leeway in the future.  I had to work hard to get my HEQ5 Pro working as it was at the limits with my 8" Newtonian.

Edited August 1, 2022 by andymw

[Paul2019]

8 hours ago, andymw said:

I currently have an HEQ5 Pro that my wife gave me as a present.  I have belt-modded it/upgraded all its bearings and it is working well with my 8" Skywatcher 200PDS scope with filter wheel, autofocusser, cooled mono camera, OAG and guiding camera (I get about 0.6 arc secs RMS guiding).  All that said:  I would actually recommend you going for the EQ6 R Pro if you can afford it as it will give you much more leeway in the future.  I had to work hard to get my HEQ5 Pro working as it was at the limits with my 8" Newtonian.

That’s pretty much what I was thinking, although I’m in no rush to get a scope at all and probably will get a redcat at first, having the eq6 will give me some wiggle room if I want a reflector and I am somewhat attracted to the idea of getting an imaging sct for planetary, globs etc