Thanks Leon, Rocky, and Alex.
Sorry to disappoint you Dunk, but I have only ever used JPEGs; RAWs, TIFFs,
FITs, MOVs, AVIs, etc etc etc, they do my octogenarian's head in. I have
also never used flats, biases, or done my own darks, just not used darks, or enabled in camera noise reduction, also did all my processing[apart from sharpening] in DSS. No layers, masks, gradient removal, deconvolution [don't
even know what that is].
raymo
Last edited by raymo; 05-03-2018 at 10:38 PM.
Reason: more text
Raymo
Darks are easy just put the lens cap on and click away while you are tidying up and putting other stuff away the number being determined by the time it takes to get around to putting the camera away.
Alex
I've gone back and reprocessed a few earlier imaging attempts just for practice or to see if they were better than expected with my improved skills. Some are, some aren't but It always fun to check, especially when the clouds are watching...
Thanks Brent and Chris [JPEGs, not RAWs].
I'm never short of time Alex, so when I need darks [high ambient temp
for example], I just enable both noise reduction functions, and let the camera take them.
raymo
Hi Colin,
you're right up to a point, but I sorely need a modded DSLR to
bring out the red that is hinted at in this image for example. I'm
limited to around 2 minute subs at 50mm with my little nano tracker,
so I can't get the red with longer subs.
raymo
Raymo - modding would make a huge difference. That said, it's not impossible but you will need many, many subs to pick up the faint stuff. I find in summer that Barnard's Loop gives about the same signal as the amp glow in my D5100. A good set of darks is required but you can get something.
Cheers,
Cam
Yes, I intend to experiment Cam. I am at present trying to get the best PA
that I can with my Nano Tracker, so that I can extend the length of my subs
to 120secs or even a little more[at 50mm f/l].
raymo
Good luck Raymo, PA is the only drawback with these units but once you find a way of getting better PA, 2 mins with a 50mm lens should be no problem. The best I have done with the Nano is 40sec @ 500mm! My PA is good enough now to take 90 secs @ 135mm fairly consistently.
By the way, that's a nice shot of Orion you took. You should be able to replicate that with just using the Nano Tracker now. You'll be amazed with the results you can achieve.
Thanks Michael, I am discovering a few little things that need sorting out,
such as the ball joint to camera came loose in the middle of a session, and the camera swung round about 180. the little lock knob that tightens against
the bottom of the camera has a shiny surface, so is difficult to tighten properly; I'll have to replace it with a nut.
raymo
It has a dimpled rubber insert which grips quite well, but the shiny rim is narrow and hence hard to grip well enough to tighten it properly. I could
loctite the thing at the end of the thread because when it is backed right off the male thread doesn't bottom in the camera body. Then trouble with that idea is if I use it with another camera which had a shallower threaded
hole in the bottom, obviously I wouldn't be able to use the locking wheel.
raymo
nice work raymo. Hoping to get something that good in the future. Just get a bit frazzled by the options for processing so been taking single shots and been taking darks. Dont have much time with work and all but wish to give it a crack and see what my short term archive stuff produces. At the comment just excited to get some good photos and inspired by shots like these. thanks for sharing
from me 
