Well, I bit the bullet and had a go tonight. I was going to stay inside in the warmth but I walked past the new beast, spotted it and thought: "Why not?"
Took the beast out next to the pool, fiddled with the polarscope and got the mount lined up with the SCP (easier than I thought and therefore all my drift aligning research flew out the window) and then proceeded to show my youngest (he's 9) all the cool things using the goto. He drove the scope for me and called out what he thought each item was, globular, open cluster, fuzzy cloudy thingy etc...He did a good job too!
After he went inside to bed, I decided to see if I could attach the 1000D to the scope and give it a go. Hmmm, how to focus? Selected Altair from the handset and used the liveview to focus. Three minutes later I was slewing to M8 and taking some test 30 sec subs. COLOUR appeared! Cool . Raced inside to get the laptop and used the Canon capture program to perform longer than 30 sec subs with the computer.
I noticed a few frames had slightly eggy stars (which I threw away) probably due to the mount not being PEC'd? I dunno. Most were good so I used what looked OK. Remembered to take a dark frame of the same length then proceeded to take some more of M22 and Trifid ( haven't processed these yet). I haven't even tried the autoguiding yet, still starting out so this will have to wait. I stuck with 30 sec subs as any longer tended to show eggy stars, I am sure longer subs are needed for more data.
So, anyway, here is my first go into the dark side....feel free to comment and offer advice. I am a complete newbie when it comes to processing so I hope I didn't commit too many cardinal sins. Please let me know where I can improve. Details below.
Image Details:
Subject: M8 Lagoon Nebula in Sagittarius
Telescope: Black Diamond 200mm Reflector @ F5 on HEQ5 Pro
Camera: Canon 1000D
Capture: Canon EOS Utility
Guiding: No
Frames: 8 x 30 second at ISO 800, 1 x Dark Frame
Processing: Registax 5 only
Here is a link to a less compressed JPEG (1.1Meg) Sorry if the attachment is too large to view easily, I havent figured out the best format to post here yet. Press the four arrow button on the attachment viewer to make it all visible.
Cheers
Chris
Last edited by Screwdriverone; 17-07-2010 at 04:44 AM.
Chris that is fantastic. You must have pretty well nailed the polar alignment - you should check it using the drift method next time.....
There is nothing like seeing that nice colour image appear literally out of thin air. I have been loving your posts since you got the new gear - now you just have to get guiding - another good buzz.
Chris that is fantastic. You must have pretty well nailed the polar alignment - you should check it using the drift method next time.....
There is nothing like seeing that nice colour image appear literally out of thin air. I have been loving your posts since you got the new gear - now you just have to get guiding - another good buzz.
Cheers
Adam
Thanks Adam!
I have marked out on the concrete where the tripod was, ALMOST forgot to do it before I packed up...I will check it again using drifting.
You are right, I was astounded how many good frames came out after only about 10 minutes set up and then to see some of the details after processing, I was rapt!. I am glad you are enjoying the posts, seems like we have the same setup!
I have some Trifid and M22 to process, might see how they look.
Thanks for the tip, I was thinking the ISO 1600 was a bit noisy, I will definitely try this out and give it a red hot go.
Cheers
Chris
Well it is noisier than ISO800 yes. I'm no guru on the subject but the other night I was out there imaging & like you, I was limited to 35 secs before I got egg shape stars; I tried ISO 800 & wasn't satisfied with the amount of data collected so I jumped to 1600 & tried an exposure of 25 secs. I also tried using darks by both procedures (In camera noise reduction &/or taking a set of darks after the lights) The darks I took after the imaging run didn't kill all the noise but the in camera noise reduction did.
Nice job chris, you would have to be proud of yourself to capture what you have!
A few tips for stacking, for a start try Deep Sky stacker very user friendly.
Secondly try to avoid ICNR (in camera noise reduction) as it doesn't just remove noise.
Best practice is take your darks in multiples of 3 eg, 3 6 9...
And temperature is the key with DSLRS the colder the better, they are forecasting a fine week ahead with over night temps at 2 deg, i will be cheering!
The next piece of hardware that is almost paramount that you purchase is a MPCC multi purpose coma corrector , the cheapest i have found them is at www.tan14.com at least 100 dollars cheaper than over here including postage!
I will give DSS a go, I tried Maxim DL5 demo but couldnt drive it very well and it seemed to stop with the large files so I went back to Registax.
Thanks for the encouragement, I was stoked when I focussed on Altair first and then slewed to each object and started firing away to be able to get some good results.
Sure is FUN! (but VERY cold)
Had to pack up about 1am as the dew started on everything except the scope mirrors. Need a nice pair of fingerless gloves now...dang, the purchases never stop
Maxim works a lot better with EQMOD for image capture/guiding/mount control and a heap of other things. It makes framing a absolute breeze virtually you do it all with your mouse button! and if you have wireless you can connect into your PC and do it from the comfort of your lounge room! Its not hard at all and its not so advanced as one might expect.
Maxim works a lot better with EQMOD for image capture/guiding/mount control and a heap of other things. It makes framing a absolute breeze virtually you do it all with your mouse button! and if you have wireless you can connect into your PC and do it from the comfort of your lounge room! Its not hard at all and its not so advanced as one might expect.
Thanks for the tip Brendan, I will give Maxim a go next time, I like the idea of imaging from inside, I can do that too!
Cheers
Chris
Quote:
Originally Posted by davewaldo
Looking good Chris! Don't stress too much about coma at this stage. Just have fun and see what you can do to get longer exposures.
The scope/mount combo you have is obviously very good as you're producing great images already (your skill plays a major part too I'm sure )
Looking forward to seeing more
Cheers Dave, YEP, its a corker this rig, I am stoked at how following a few careful steps (and remembering some tricks from here) allowed me to make some decent images my first night out attempting it.
Already have my lagoon on my desktop Can't wait for the next go at it. Might need some sleep first though...
Well it is noisier than ISO800 yes. I'm no guru on the subject but the other night I was out there imaging & like you, I was limited to 35 secs before I got egg shape stars; I tried ISO 800 & wasn't satisfied with the amount of data collected so I jumped to 1600 & tried an exposure of 25 secs. I also tried using darks by both procedures (In camera noise reduction &/or taking a set of darks after the lights) The darks I took after the imaging run didn't kill all the noise but the in camera noise reduction did.
BTW No noise reduction in editting was done with the image, just the noise reduction from the camera.
Sorry John, I skipped over you there,
I will try to iron out the PEC and or fine tune the polar alignment without having to go to the autoguiding just yet and then give ISO1600 another bash. I can certainly see the difference in data in your pic with similar exposure to mine, albeit on another object.
I can't see in the camera any section to turn on or off the ICNR, not sure if the 1000D has it? EDIT: Found it, in the Custom Functions section - thanks
Thanks, I havent had much experience processing Deep Sky Stuff, I am sure there is some better ways, but for now, I am happy to get something.
Likewise! - I liked the way you traded saturation for detail in M8 - it spurred me on to tackle the processing differently - confirmed that my recently purchased refractor is not a complete dud. Unguided at the moment, once I get focus sorted out, I'll tackle guiding - one thing at a time.
Likewise! - I liked the way you traded saturation for detail in M8 - it spurred me on to tackle the processing differently - confirmed that my recently purchased refractor is not a complete dud. Unguided at the moment, once I get focus sorted out, I'll tackle guiding - one thing at a time.
Cheers,
Rowland.
Thanks Rowland,
I tried not to overcook the colour as when I did that, the noise came up too. I must admit its amazing to see how much detail 10.1MP can get you through a telescope. The old webcam can't compete with the DSLR in that regard, just takes SO long to stack such large files.
Looking into Autoguiding now, doing my homework to see the best way to tackle it.
I really only did this with the gamma and RGB balance in Registax, I have GIMP but like PS, might need my teenager to show me the best way to drive those. I did have my 16 year old son who is a great artist with his graphics tablet, have a go at processing the shot but his looked funny. (is that the technical term )
Have you seen my other Trifid and M22? (gratuitous self promotion here! ) Similar processing on these, very minimal like you said. I am surprised of the performance of the 1000D's images for a CMOS sensor...
. Raced inside to get the laptop and used the Canon capture program to perform longer than 30 sec subs with the computer.
Not over processed and nicely focused. Registax has done a good job
Thanks Adam!
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