Quote:
Originally Posted by Tulloch
Excellent result Pete.
I'm hoping to get out Friday morning (only break in the clouds forecast down here), so I'm hoping for a few tips if you could pass them on.
Did you track the comet during the 30 minutes of subs, or let it move across the star field? In post processing, did you use a DSO stacker like DSS or a planetary stacker like AS!3?
I'm planning on using my Canon DSLR on a C9.25" at f6, but I'll only get one go at this I think.
Any help appreciated.
Thanks, Andrew
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Thanks Andrew!
My subs were sidereal tracked but unguided (PHD wouldn't calibrate properly when I tried to start guiding despite the fact that I successfully completed a guiding test using a similar part of the sky less than 30 hours prior & left everything set up in between
). Due to the short window I had for imaging it, I decided not to waste any time fixing my guiding issue and as my sub lengths were short (30 secs) I figured I could get away with it. I ended up throwing away about a dozen of the worst subs in the end.
At your focal length I would probably use as short subs as possible (unless you decide to guide on the comet).
I processed the image using "comet mode" in Deep Sky Stacker. I did comet stacking (centred on the comet) with Kappa Sigma clipping which all but removed the trailed stars (I didn't have too many stars anyway due to the light pollution
). I then ran a second pass of DSS using standard stacking to keep the stars sharp and blended the two resulting images in Photoshop to create the final image.
There are many ways to approach this - I've seen some great results using Pixinsight (which I don't know how to use) so this is just one approach.
Good luck - wishing you clear weather!
