My 1st Image

[CheshireChris]

This is my 1st ever image - NGC7000/North American Nebula. I stacked and processed in PixInsight (downloaded the trial version - along with the RC Astro tools). I played around with DSS and Photoshop but the result from PI seems better and l like the idea of a 'one stop shop' for processing. Not displeased with it although l have no doubt

 i can do much, much, much better.

ASI533MC Pro/ASIAir Pro/SkyWatcher StarAdventurer GTi

Samyang 135mm FD

40 x 60s Lights, -10C @ default gain and same number of Darks. No filters. No bias or flat frames.

The green cast in some parts of the image looks odd and is probably down to me not understanding PI very well - yet.

However it's a start.

Questions - should l add a Light pollution filter?

Chris

 

[geeklee]

41 minutes ago, CheshireChris said:

This is my 1st ever image - NGC7000/North American Nebula.

Great start Chris!  Especially with no narrowband filter - clearly showing NGC7000 and surrounding nebulosity.

On a colour camera, a duo-narrowband filter would be useful for emission nebula - helping isolate just that Ha and OIII signal better.  There are a huge variety available across the cost/quality spectrum.

[Ouroboros]

Good start! As for a LP filter how dark are your skies in Bortle or whatever?  It doesn’t look like you have a lot if any LP. But then Pixinsight and other processing apps are really good now at removing it.  I can produce images now in Bortle 5 skies that were far more difficult ten years ago. 

Flats and dark flats will help a bit too. Incidentally, you don’t need bias frames if you subtract darks from light frames and dark flats from flats. 

Since you have a cooled camera you can make master dark frames taken at the same temperature and duration of the lights. You can build up a library of master darks.  In fact you’ve already got one master dark of 40 frames. 

[Vroobel]

Very good picture for the beginning. Nobody mentioned yet that it's well framed which is also very important. 

You can reduce the green cast using an SCNR process from the PI, but play with it carefully. 

Another tip: find a way to reduce stars, the best if you can extract them from the background with nebulosity and process them separately. 

As you have the small 533 sensor, you can use 1.25" filters, they don't require extra filter drawer which double the cost. 

Good luck! 🙂

P.S. It would look more natural if rotated 90 degrees anticlockwise.

 

Edited August 16 by Vroobel

[Stuart1971]

Super start, onwards and upwards…👍🏻

[CheshireChris]

3 hours ago, Ouroboros said:

Good start! As for a LP filter how dark are your skies in Bortle or whatever?  It doesn’t look like you have a lot if any LP. But then Pixinsight and other processing apps are really good now at removing it.  I can produce images now in Bortle 5 skies that were far more difficult ten years ago. 

Flats and dark flats will help a bit too. Incidentally, you don’t need bias frames if you subtract darks from light frames and dark flats from flats. 

Since you have a cooled camera you can make master dark frames taken at the same temperature and duration of the lights. You can build up a library of master darks.  In fact you’ve already got one master dark of 40 frames. 

Clear Outside says Bortle 5 - looking North there is light pollution from Wilmslow then from the sprawl that is Greater Manchester but it's not too bad.

Chris

 

 

[CheshireChris]

1 hour ago, Vroobel said:

 

P.S. It would look more natural if rotated 90 degrees anticlockwise.

 

Can't argue with that 👍Done!

Thanks to all for the encouraging comments.

Chris

 

[ONIKKINEN]

Great first image, well done. Learning Pixinsight for the first try is also admirable, you have certainly jumped to the deep end of the pool but looks like you got the hang of it already.

For the green cast, its something that often happens with colour cameras but you can adjust this with the SCNR green tool in PI. Try running it at various levels and see what works best. The full 1.0 power is often too much and results in an overly purple tone, try something like 0.5 as a starter.

[TiffsAndAstro]

honestly this is a great image, but it deserves some more  post processing.

split the stars and stretch the nebulosity then recombine them in siril.

i took an image last night a bit more zoom but basically in the same area. i put a post in this sub forum if you want a quick look. 

 

[CheshireChris]

13 minutes ago, ONIKKINEN said:

For the green cast, its something that often happens with colour cameras but you can adjust this with the SCNR green tool in PI. Try running it at various levels and see what works best. The full 1.0 power is often too much and results in an overly purple tone, try something like 0.5 as a starter.

 

2 hours ago, Vroobel said:

You can reduce the green cast using a SCNR process from the PI, but play with it carefully.

A quick adjustment with SCNR ~0.8 - made quite a difference.

Chris

P.S - I think l can feel my bank balance being reduced a bit to buy a PixInsight license...........oooh. this is an expensive pastime

Edited August 16 by CheshireChris
Typos

[TiffsAndAstro]

7 minutes ago, CheshireChris said:

 

A quick adjustment with SCNR ~0.8 - made quite a difference.

Chris

P.S - I think l can feel my bank balance being reduced a bit to buy a PixInsight license...........oooh. this is an expensive pastime

honestly, if you ever give this hobby up, sit down, crack open a beer and set fire to some £50 notes. it will still be cheaper than astrophotography

[Vroobel]

32 minutes ago, CheshireChris said:

I think l can feel my bank balance being reduced a bit to buy a PixInsight license...........oooh. this is an expensive pastime

 

Believe me (us), you will never regret it.

Do you know that Russell Croman's Xterminator series is the next stage? OK, I'm not serious, but be ready for around double the total price... 😉

 

[alacant]

2 hours ago, CheshireChris said:

buy a PixInsight license

Fortunately there are many ways to process astro images. We gladly allowed our pi trial to expire.

Cheers, welcome and good luck 

[Elp]

14 minutes ago, alacant said:

Fortunately there are many ways to process astro images. We gladly allowed our pi trial to expire.

Never used it, never seen the need to. Been doing it for a few years and still don't see the need for it. Learn to process images the manual way and you can apply the skills to any images, not just astro.

[Ouroboros]

2 hours ago, TiffsAndAstro said:

honestly, if you ever give this hobby up, sit down, crack open a beer and set fire to some £50 notes. it will still be cheaper than astrophotography

There speaks the voice of wizened experience, eh?  Chuckle. 

[TiffsAndAstro]

22 minutes ago, Ouroboros said:

There speaks the voice of wizened experience, eh?  Chuckle. 

definitely not, just the benefit of my newbie experience. im still here trying to do astro on a budget. Failing, but trying

[Elp]

2 hours ago, Ouroboros said:

There speaks the voice of wizened experience, eh?  Chuckle. 

Best to learn that early on.

[CheshireChris]

15 hours ago, Vroobel said:

Do you know that Russell Croman's Xterminator series is the next stage? OK, I'm not serious, but be ready for around double the total price... 😉

Yes, l downloaded the trial versions of the XTerminator set. You'd think there would be a discount if the whole set were purchased at once but there we have it.

I've got a month before making any decisions on buying/not buying PixInsight. What has surprised me in the short time since starting imaging is the huge combination of packages to control equipment and process the captured images - frankly it's beyond bewildering and l consider myself to be good with most things technical. The problem for a beginner like me is knowing what  the best combination is - as far as l can tell they are all good. That's the problem too many choices; at the stage I'm at l like to think l am open minded about what to use but neither do l want to spend too much time trying the many available packages. It's why I'm leaning towards PixInsight for processing - it's all there in one place, albeit at a cost.

Chris

 

[alacant]

10 minutes ago, CheshireChris said:

l am open minded

There's not as much as you may think and if you're OK hooking stuff up to and managing a computer, you've most of the battle won.

Perhaps the best (only?) way forward when beginning is to go along to an astro club meeting. They'll be only too please to give you a demonstration of what's available; It's much easier when you can see stuff first hand.
Cheers

[WolfieGlos]

Great first image, well done!

40 minutes ago, CheshireChris said:

It's why I'm leaning towards PixInsight for processing - it's all there in one place, albeit at a cost.

I’ve recently upgraded to Pixinsight after using Siril for 2 years. Siril is free software that can stack and process images too, but it’s not as robust as PI. I still use it for stacking though, mostly for its speed and to save learning something new for the time being. If you’re hesitant on spending for now then give it a go, the processes are largely the same, and I found the switch between the two fairly easy.

43 minutes ago, CheshireChris said:

What has surprised me in the short time since starting imaging is the huge combination of packages to control equipment and process the captured images - frankly it's beyond bewildering

Couldn’t agree more on this front. Luckily for equipment control, you’re already there with the AsiAir. I started with a DSLR and shutter release, then laptop control with APT (which kept crashing) and now NiNa which runs flawlessly. I tried an Air recently and didn’t get on with it, so I’d say if it works, stick with it.

17 hours ago, CheshireChris said:

this is an expensive pastime

We all feel that pain!! Welcome to the Astro-imaging, strapped-for-cash club