Yep, just as the title says. Never trust what you first see in an image.
At camp I started out using Berts 8" f10 Klevtsov.
After doing some test images I was really dissappointed with the results from a scope that is 95% the optical quality of an RC.
At 15 minute exposure times I was only getting faint smudges of bright objects!!!!
(Yes, focus was spot-on)
I always do a test shot of an object first to make sure it is centre of frame, right orientation etc.
The first object was M83. All I saw in the test image was a blurry dot just a tad larger than a star.
Then I tried a brighter object: Omega Centauri. Usually a bright object even at around 2 minutes.
At 15 minutes it was barely visible.
I packed it in for the night and went around watching what everyone else was doing.
Danielsun helped me the next day to replace the Klevtsov with my ED80 so I could get
some imaging done.
The remaining nights at camp were spent imaging with the ED80
Today I was going through all the files from camp and I spotted those dismal dark failures.
I decided to run them through Photoshop anyway to see if the focus was as good as I thought.
That's when I got a suprise!!!!!!!
If you look at the images attached, you will see why I will never again trust what I first see in an image. What I thought was totally usuless data turned out to be almost usable!
If I had've gone a bit longer on these exposures they would be chock-a-block full of good data.
What did I learn: There is data hidden in almost any shot
These are single 15 minute frames with no guiding. In the original images you'll see why I didn't continue with imaging them.
Omega Centauri original as I saw it on the laptop screen on the night:
http://i493.photobucket.com/albums/r...s/Lesson-1.jpg
The same image after running it through Photoshop Curves and Levels!
http://i493.photobucket.com/albums/r...s/Lesson-2.jpg
M83 original as I saw it on the laptop screen on the night:
http://i493.photobucket.com/albums/r...s/Lesson-3.jpg
The same image after running it through Photoshop Curves and Levels!
http://i493.photobucket.com/albums/r...s/Lesson-4.jpg
I will be giving the Klevstov another go soon, and I will take longer images than 15 minutes, and I will stack and process them no matter what I see on the laptop.
I now know that at f10 I need to go a lot longer in exposure times
