Astro-photography using barn door tracker.

[Russman]

Here's my attempt at some astrophotography using my home made motorised barn door tracker. deep sky stacker & photoshop.

34 Light frames 30 to 40 seconds f/2.0; ISO 1000
19 Dark frames 30 seconds f/2.0; ISO 1000 with lens cap on.
17 Bias frames 1/4000 sec; f/2.5; ISO 1250 with lens cap on.

If anyone has any hints or tips please comment! :D

[PeterEde]

Very nice
Lots of detail in there

[DJScotty]

That's superb for a barn door. Do you have a photo of it?

Good work!

[Russman]

Here it is in action. :)

[Rex]

Russ thats' s a great image for a barn door. Well done mate. Only tip I could offer is to take a couple of flats. It actually doesn't look like you need them really, but even so I find the images always turn out better when they are included. Keep them coming mate that lense is a cracker.

[blink138]

whoa russman........... great pic and fab piece of home engineering, bravo!
pat

[Russman]

Another edit using Nebulosity instead of DSS. Its the demo version so the pics got little lines through it which don't do it any justice..

[Russman]

my latest shot using my DIY barn door. 10 x 1 min subs. darks, bias & flats subtracted in nebulosity. Tweaked in PS CS6. Was shot @ 50mm ISO 1000 f/4.5.

I'm pretty happy with my latest result, I have come along way since my first shot but I know I've still got a long way to go!

Any tips would be appreciated, would love some constructive criticism! :D

Couldn't help the tree sneaking in at the top :(

[Atmos]

Just give me a chance to lift my jaw up off the floor :P

[Somnium]

great effort, especially with a home made mount, very impressive

[OzEclipse]

Fantastic work Russ. Do you really need a double arm barn door. This one seems to work fantastically well.

Joe

:eyepop:

[raymo]

That's a ripper. Is the dark surround severe vignetting, or is it intentional
to give the effect of looking through an oval window?
raymo

[Russman]

Hi Raymo,

That was intentional, I did that in photoshop, I was trying to make the sky darker without changing the brightness of stars.

[Russman]

I ventured out again last night for about an hour. Tried some 3min exposures but I could not use them, too much star trailing.

This shot is made up of 30 sec, 60 sec and a couple of 120 sec exposures, I'll update later with more info.

I'm trying to get as much detail as I can in the dust clouds.

[raymo]

Beautiful; love the signature.
raymo

[yusbot]

OMG, it's beautiful. do you have step by step editing process in photoshop? I'm newbie, never get this kind of image in one shot.

[rcheshire]

Great images Russ. Flats make a difference and are worth including for other than vignetting. I am curious as to why you took the bias frames at a different ISO, not that it matters I guess, a bias is a bias? What type of camera?

[cometcatcher]

That's got to be a full frame camera to get that sort of detail. The stars are so tiny and sharp.

[Russman]

I make a few adjustments in photoshop. Brightness & contrast, levels, curves, exposure, & saturation (editing each color channel). I don't have any set guide lines though, I just make little tweaks until it I like the look of it. I also like to use the unsharp mask, create a layer mask paint over the areas I want it to work on, it helps to bring out more details in the dust clouds etc. It is hard to type everything, I'll have to make a youtube video one day! P.S there are already a lot of vid's on youtube. a good one is 'how to edit the milky way' :)



I'm not sure why my bias were at a different ISO, I would usually shoot at the same ISO, but you are right, I don't think it really matters. I use a 6D :D P.S. I did use flats, I forgot to type them in. ooops. :lol:

[AlexN]

If you are using dark frames, taking bias frames actually introduces noise.

1. Light frames contain the read noise, dark current and signal.
2. Dark frames contain read noise and dark current.
3. Bias contain read noise.

If you subtract the darks from the lights, you have removed the dark current and the read noise. If you then subtract the read noise again, you are introducing that same noise into the image again only inverse.

Your results look amazing. I've always wanted to make a barn door tracker. Was it hard to build?

[rcheshire]

Correct - bias frames for flat calibration.

[Russman]

Heres a single 155 sec exposure, canon EF100mm f/2.8L Macro IS USM lens on 6D shot with my barn door. @ f/6.3 ISO 5000

I borrowed lens from my cousin, will have to borrow it again and take a lot more shots I think!! :)

[raymo]

Wow! another candidate for the main forum.
raymo