Andromeda and friends

[Icearcher (Chris)]

Hi All

Some fantastic clear skies on Friday was too good to pass up so I packed up and headed about an hour north up towards Dutton.

Managed to find and image Andromeda, Pleiades, Flame and Orion nebula. Unfortunately I didn't get enough of the flame nebular to get a decent image.

Im still working unguided so I was limited to about 60 second exposures, guide cam is on its way

All shot at 800iso on the canon 550d, sensor temps were 30 to 35.

Im still learning how to process so if anyone has advice on how to eliminate the red speckling in keep getting that would be great.

Regards
Chris

[RyanJones]

They are some beautiful images there Chris. I particularly like your Orion. If anything I would say they are just noisy which just means you need to increase the number of subs you're using to get a better SNR. Great work though, you've done a really nice job

[Gavin1234]

Nice work Chris. What software you using for processing?

[Icearcher (Chris)]

Thanks Ryan, I think it is just noise too, once I have guiding running Ill be able to run lower ISOs and hopefully get cleaner subs.

Thanks Gavin, im using deep sky stacker to stack and then Photoshop to edit, Im still not that good at editing, its one of a long list of things I need to work on.

[Jasp05 (Aaron)]

Silly question, but did you take dark frames in the below images ?


The speckling can be noise from the raw image, or maybe an artifact from stretching too far during processing.

Either way, more subs and dark frames will definitely help reduce it.

This was my Andromeda that weekend with Canon 1200D and 250mm Lens. I can't remember if I cropped this a bit. But plenty of background noise due to lack of subs. I think this was 5 subs at 5min each. Sensor temp around that 30-35 degrees also.

The amount of detail you captured in Orion though is awesome. Nice Job.

[Icearcher (Chris)]

Thanks Aaron

Yep, took 15 dark frames, this helped take out a lot of the noise and I agree that the red speckling is also noise and probably a bit to much Iso.

Thats a great shot, I like the extra detail you have been able to pull out of the arms, this is what Im aiming to achieve but I need to get my exposure length up. Guide cam is coming so look out for some multi minute subs coming.

I think my processing still needs some work though, Im still learning.

[xelasnave]

Great effort. Well done.
Alex

[Jasp05 (Aaron)]

Originally Posted by Icearcher

Thanks Aaron

Yep, took 15 dark frames, this helped take out a lot of the noise and I agree that the red speckling is also noise and probably a bit to much Iso.

Thats a great shot, I like the extra detail you have been able to pull out of the arms, this is what Im aiming to achieve but I need to get my exposure length up. Guide cam is coming so look out for some multi minute subs coming.

I think my processing still needs some work though, Im still learning.

Hi Chris,

I'm pretty new to processing also. But there's a video on You tube by Astrobackyard.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5GgruZ-1zQ0&t=1032s

Goes over his process for editing DSO's. This is the method I used to process my image below and have found it works quite well. And its super simple.

I would recommend getting Gradient Xterminator for Photoshop if you haven't already also. Gets rid of those pesky light pollution gradients quite well. It's got a free 30 day trial to test it out.

[Icearcher (Chris)]

Hi Aaron

I like astrobackyard, he shows what can be done with light polluted skies, Iv been meaning to start learning his techniques, save that for some cloudy days

Iv solved the light pollution issues by getting away from the light pollution, Iv got two little dark sites that are about an away from the city.