Nightsky processing help

[MaCross]

Hi folks,

this is my second ever attempt to capture stars with my cam. Its M45 (I believe) over the Pap of Glencoe.

I know it looks far from perfect and I would like to ask for some processing help.

It is a sinlge frame, f4 at 17mm, ISO 2000 with a 25 second exposure, taken with a 5DmkII and a 17-40L.

I have changed the contrast and curves slightly as well as some sharpening.

Any comments and help how to process this better is much appreciated!!

Nightsky on Flickr - Photo Sharing!

Sorry, I somehow cant insert a pic, so its just a link to it....

[Cloudwatcher]

You don't actually say what you are looking for in the image,MC,which,having downloaded same,looks pretty good to me.......... Like the 'campfire' effect in the foreground.

Anyway,taking a giant leap of faith I have assumed it's the 'rosy glow' that you are not happy with so have had a go at changing the colour balance from red to green......... hope you like.

BTW I see you have captured M31 in the frame..... nice one.

[jgs001]

that's a nice result for a single image MC... Nice edit to CW...

[MaCross]

Thanks very much Cloudwatcher! Your edit looks much better than my original attempt!

Indeed it was the glow above the trees that bothered me somehow. Luckily by the time I went out to take this shot the smoke from the fire has stopped :-)

As I am a complete newby whatever night skies are concerned I was just pointing and shooting in the direction that looked best to the naked eye. I only found out later that I had captured M45 by pure chance. Now I will know what to look out for next time shall the clouds ever clear up here again.

Having captured my first "Fuzzy" makes me jump up and down and up and down....

I think I have captured a few meteors too??? as I have plenty of strange lines going through some of the pics... I will post some later on.

Thanks jgs001! You comment is very kind! Feel free to dish it out without hesitation, I am critique proof :-)

[MaCross]

Well, here is another view of the same direction of that evening. Are the three faint lines meteors then?

I have tried to follow Cloudwatchers adivce and have played with the channels

Single frame at f4, 17mm, 25 sec ISO 1250

Any comments are much appreciated!

[jgs001]

I can't really see much in that one, needs a bit of a lighten. Capture a sequence of shots and stack them in DSS... It will scupper the foreground... so you might have to do some creative sticking afterwards... I wrote a tutorial on imaging with a static tripod... It's in the imaging tips section as a sticky.

[MaCross]

Thanks so much jgs001! I really appreciate an honest opinion! I will try and lighten up the above shot. I too thinkt hat the higher ISO worked better

I have only used DSS once before and the results were pretty disappointing. I tried it again just before and here is the result of three images stacked together (Its just puzzeling me that the middle bit of the trail is missing???)

I will read your sticky again tomorrow and try to do as you suggested... fingers and toes crossed it will improve my skills

I have also ordered "Making every photon count" so that should give me some ideas too

Anyway, here goes my (bluey-greeny) version

[Cloudwatcher]

And there was I thinking I was the only one still using single frame jobs for astro shots.

John is right of course but I like to see what I can pull out of a single frame,then,of course I'm not an imager as such.

The attached is a 5 minute job on your earlier image with the history panel included which might be of help. Of course, one can play around for ages and get a multitude of results from one image and this is just to show that even a quick job can bring out a lot of hidden detail.

[Taff]

Hi' That's a nice capture with you.Mark

[MaCross]

You are a star Cloudwatcher! Thank so much again for the time you have invested to improve me image. The history indeed helps!

Whereas I am very comfortable to make adjustments to daytime images I am thrown into a complete new and deep pool with anything astro Any hints and tips are therefore of so much value to me

Thanks folks!

[Dangerous-Dave]

Nice shot Martina. The bluey-greeny rework is superb. I see the Astrometry solver is having more success with your images than mine!

[jgs001]

Martina, I think what you mean by the middle bit of the trail, is the dust through the middle of the milky way... it's actually obscured rather than missing. DSS has done it's job though, increasing the SNR of the input files in the resulting image.

[MaCross]

I can see exactely what you mean John. Luckily amongst all the wild pointing round at the sky I have a few views that I took more than one frame of :-)

DSS is deffo the way to get ahead in the future.

I am just lost a little.... whats SNR please??? :-)

Ah cheers Dave... that is just pure beginners luck :-))

[jgs001]

Sorry SNR - Signal to Noise Ratio. more frames in the stack the better the ratio becomes and the more info you can drag out... Have a look at the 3 versions of M31 I posted over the past couple of weeks... The amount of detail in the last one is noticeably different to the others.

[MaCross]

Cheers again jgs001! As a German I am happy if I get by in English, never mind the abbreviations :-)

You SGL guys are awsome! I have learnt a lot since yesterday so thanks again to everyone who gave me valuable adivse!

I have made the comparison between yesterdays pic (single sub) and one that I processed today (two subs stacked) and I think I can call it a small result :-))