Crux and Coal Sack

[DavidH]

Hello Folks,

As an exercise in image capture and processing I captured 35x30 sec exposures of Crux with Canon 10d and 75-300 lens @75mm FL and ISO 1600.

Stacked in K3ccd, using a dark frame from 5x30 sec exposures and a flat frame from 4 exposures in my light box. The colour from the torch bulbs in the light box was quite yellow and resulted in the Crux image going blue. Adjusted this back with Photoshop colour balance. (Hmm, probably should have adjusted the colour of the flat frame before applying it maybe).

I would appreciate it if anyone could tell me what problems you can see in this image and what I could do to improve it.

Thanks in advance,
David.

[h0ughy]

:scared: :scared: there is another David H in the world!!!!!!!! nice shot:whistle: :D

were there any street lights around? try to get your flats with a white light, the focus might need a tweek, and the emu head looks great.

[DavidH]

Yes H0ughy,

I believe that there may be be more than two of us as well. There are not enough emoticons to express how scary that is!

Thanks,
David.

[DavidH]

Thanks H0ughy,

Yes there is a bit of light pollution here, and could probably have affected the bottom of the image more than the top, but I was thinking that maybe the glow in the bottom was more related to the camera.

Focus is an issue I am still grappling with.

Would white LEDs be a better choice for the lightbox?

Regards,
David.

[h0ughy]

yes they would, but see Dennis's article over in the projects articles area

http://www.iceinspace.com.au/index.php?id=63,211,0,0,1,0

[Ric]

Lovely image Dave, a great capture.

Cheers

[DavidH]

Thanks for the encouragement Ric. I am finding that this astrophotography thing is a bit more frustrating than point and shoot.

Ragards,
David.

[Dennis]

That article was written by my nom de plume Eddie Trimarchi - I'm not that clever!

Cheers

Dennis

[h0ughy]

:doh: :whistle: :o

[Dr Nick]

Nice work.
On my monitor, I can just make out an irregular shape of the Jewel Box. ;)

[DavidH]

Thanks Nick,

I was surprised how much the cluster stood out in this shot. Much more than in the night sky.

Regards,
David.

[atalas]

Good effort David ! darks and flats are a must for DSLR'S,so that would be a good place to help lower the noise and even the illumination of the field.
http://www.cloudynights.com/ubbthreads/showflat.php/Cat/0/Board/ccd/Number/199202/page/0/view/collapsed/sb/5/o/o/fpart/all


You'll find plenty of tuts on this link which will help you with post processing so take you time and enjoy!

[DavidH]

Thanks Louie,

That's really what I was looking for when I posted this shot. Have been trying to even out the illumination and colour across the image without success. The RHS of images from this camera ( the bottom in this case as the image has been rotated 90 degrees) always has a red fringe, which I believe is called "amp glow". I thought that dark frames would get rid of it, but this has not occurred. So I'm scratching my head and looking for a solution.

Regards,
David.