Processing problems...?

[AndyUK]

After a couple more consecutive sleepless nights, I've had crack at a piggyback widefield shot and a go at M27 (after realising that it's about 2.5 times the size of M57 and thought it might be easier(?!))

The widefield shot was focused between Cassipoeia and Deneb (brightest star top right)... which is probably a little unfortunate as Bath also lies in that direction (and of course it's not exactly ever truly dark skies at the moment!). Subsequently I'm not really sure what I've got here - It's almost certainly light pollution I know, but is there possibly something else here I could bring out higher up the frame(?)

The original .tif file saved out of DSS showed more promise than this has provided (I think), and I was rather hoping I might be able to pick up something a little more than just the stars...

(I must admit though, this looks overprocessed to me - The "lighter" dark areas look kind of blotchy?)

24mm, f5.6, ISO 200, 3 mins exposure, 35 subs, 20 darks, (no flats or bias), DeepSky Stacker, Elements v7 (also using astronomy tools 1.6)

Here's M27 - ISO 400, 30s exposures, 180 subs, 30 darks, (no flats or bias), DeepSky Stacker, Elements v7 (also using astronomy tools 1.6)

I had absolutely no idea at all how to get colour into this, so simply relied on Astronomy tool to see what would happen... and this is what I got. Admittedly, it's much better than the stacked .tif file out of DSS (I could hardly see the nebulae until using levels), but again, the

"lighter" dark areas look blotchy, and there's something else going on around the nebulae itself... but I don't know if this is processing artefacts or (unlikely!) something else waiting to be brought out(?)... and it all looks rather "clunky"(?)

Has anyone any thoughts, comments or advice (please?)

[Jamie]

There looks to be some trailing in the image, and it looks a little out of focus....

I think with theses two issues addressed your image would look a lot better...

[AndyUK]

Lack of focus would certainly explain the clunkiness in the M27... I should have spotted that (sorry!).

And now that you've mentioned, I can see that the tracking is also out (especially so on M27)... but the widefield seems to also be radiating to the corners (or is that my imagination?). It's a Sigma 12-24mm lens, so I may not be that surprised if there's also lens aberration in the mix as well (but I'm certainly not blaming my tools - I think my "aberrations" are far greater)

[jgs001]

Andy, for some odd reason, I'm not seeing the pics...

[AndyUK]

Hi John - That's odd... I can still see them(?).

Here's the links:

Widefield: http://stargazerslounge.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=38076&stc=1&d=1276835525

M27: http://stargazerslounge.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=38075&stc=1&d=1276835525

[AndyUK]

[Groan!] They HAVE gone now!

Let's try again:

M27:

Widefield:

[jgs001]

That worked... no idea about that...

Anyway... the darker blobs around the stars and neb in the first one, looks like sharpening to me (A bit much maybe). Possibly to try and counter the not quite focussed ?

[AndyUK]

... Possibly... Although I don't think I added any sharpening to either of these, but of course I haven't a clue what those astronomy tool macro's do. However, the dark blob around M27 certainly isn't there in the stacked .tif file... and I don't like it!

Even though it's not in focus, I think I'm going to try and do some methodical playing with it to see how to try and bring out the nebula colour on my own.

(Thanks John)