Deep sky stacker basic help

[kon1966]

Hi all, I have taken 20 shots of the scp to get the star trails and combine the photos. When I use the default settings The sky looks washed out. What is the correct process to get the sky darker. I have the latest version installed, one of the reasons was the town of Goulburn was behind a range and was located southwest from the house I was staying in. A single frame looks good as a wallpaper and have even captured meteorites in 1 shot. I was using my canon 7d and and a 17-50mm lens set to 17mm.

Any help greatly appreciated.

Regards
Kon

[stardust steve]

Hi Kon, i did have the same troubles as have many people new to DSS. I have not perfected DSS yet but i did a few little changes which allowed me to get colour. Then when processed in DPP (the only processing programe i got) or using your fav programe, you can then stretch the colour channels in the histogram to bring out even more colour. Here are the links i have used and got satifactory results with my entry level equipment.
http://www.iceinspace.com.au/forum/showthread.php?t=59762
http://www.iceinspace.com.au/forum/archive/index.php/t-49105.html
http://stargazerslounge.com/archive/index.php/t-103941.html
and post number 37 for DPP processing http://www.iceinspace.com.au/forum/showthread.php?t=48651&highlight=DPP+processing
I hope they helped, they helped me heaps. A bit of reading and sifting through what you need but in reguards to making the sky darker, you will get that when processing further in DPP etc. Good luck with it, the solution is prob a simple setting you will find in these links hopefully or another member will know:thumbsup:

[mswhin63]

Hi Kon,

DSS is not used for Startrails as it is designed for pin point stars and aligning all of the stars to get pin point image.

Your best bet is for a program called Startrails (http://www.startrails.de/html/software.html)

The rest of the image is then done using programs like PS or GIMP.

[kon1966]

Thanks, did not know startrails existed. Will give it a go.

Regards
Kon

[midnight]

Kon,

DSS can do star trails just like the program Startrails.

Under "Stacking Parameters" and the "Light" tab, select "Maximum" for stacking mode. Normally this is set to average or median.

Secondly, go to the "Alignment" tab next to the "Light" tab and ensure you select "No Alignment" as you do not want DSS to align your images.

This will produce star trails.:thumbsup:

Cheers,
Darrin...

[mswhin63]

Thanks Darrin, I wasn't aware of the numerous feature of DSS although Startrails is quite simple to use.