Eta - first pic post

[Craig_L]

Hi all,

This forum is rather intimidating for beginners like me but it's a great learning tool. Here's my first picture post - Eta Carinae. Some tracking errors due to the unguided mount. Pretty polluted sky in Somerton, Adelaide. Processing is all over the place.

20 x 45 secs unguided on a Meade LX55
Tak 90II @ 4.5 with reducer. Astronomik CLS filter
Unmodded Canon 400D @ 1600 ISO JPEG with noise reduction in camera
Processed with Nebulousity & Photoshop

See what you think.

Craig

[davidpretorius]

Craig, i reckon that is bloody fantastic!.

THere are a few astro boys with taks in Adelaide.

[Tamtarn]

Great effort for your first image post Craig. Look forward to more

Barb & David

[Rigel003]

That's a fantastic result, Craig. Just beautiful. Well done.

[Craig_L]

Thanks guys.

I've a long way to go. Hope to get autoguiding going next so I have more flexibility. I'm finding astrophotography so addictive, and time consuming! So much to learn, sleepless nights.

Craig

[peter_4059]

Great first image Craig.

[edwardsdj]

Beautiful image Craig :)

[Hagar]

Great first image Craig, If that is your first,God help us in a few years when you climb the learning curve a bit.
Really Nice.

[browndog]

Excellent image for a first up post. Well done :thumbsup:.

Nice colours and presentation. Looking forward to seeing many more.

[EzyStyles]

fantastic image! tracking and colour seem spot on. for a polluted sky, theres quite alot of details for an unmodded 400d esp around the keyhole. keep it coming.

P.S .. don't be shy :)

[Dennis]

Hi Craig

I like it – a very nice image of this amazing region. I’m not sure if my eyes are bleary this early in the morning, but I think the focus looks slightly soft?

Cheers

Dennis

[spearo]

Well done Craig, impressive for a first picture post,
Image looks fine, a little bit of trailing but that'll disappear with guiding and probably tighter polar alignment. In fact, I'm guessing that on 45 sec shots it's probably just a matter of polar alignment
see this excellent article by Geoff Smith
http://www.iceinspace.com.au/index.php?id=63,405,0,0,1,0

don't let this forum feel intimidating, Its full of really helpful people with awesome experience and they all know we all have to start somewhere
it's the best place to be to learn!
keep up the great work and brace yourself for more and more sleepless nights (as soon as the clouds disappear!)
cheers
frank

[iceman]

Hi Craig, for a first shot that's a ripper! Congrats, and thanks for taking that first leap and posting your first image.. it'll get much easier from here on in.

If I can offer some advice, don't shoot in jpeg. Use RAW. You'll have much more control in post-processing and avoid compression artifacts.

It adds a bit to your workflow (and diskspace requirements), cause you may need to convert them to 16-TIF before stacking. I don't know if nebulosity can handle RAW files.

Have you looked at deepskystacker? It's a free image calibration and stacking tool. Very good and easy to use.

I look forward to more!

[leon]

Yep I have to agree, for a first time and not guided, it is a ripper, well done, and like others have said, get em coming, ;) I reckon Eta is a great practice object, I sought of learned on that one.:whistle:

Leon :thumbsup:

[beren]

Top effort Craig :thumbsup:

[Craig_L]

Thanks for all the comments and advice.

I have tried shooting RAW but haven't got it working in Nebulousity yet. Must be doing something wrong. Might have a go at Deepskystacker. Have some RAW shots of M42 so will play around with these.

Focus I would have liked to be a tad sharper. Sure it's not the Tak! Might have drifted a little during the shots, although the star images were slightly elongated due to tracking error. I used the Drizzle to stack in Nebulousity.

And I'm sure my polar alignment isn't that great, so will try and nail this soon.

Thanks once again for the advice and encouraging feedback.

Craig

[Ric]

Well done Craig, a fine first effort.

Looking forward to seeing more of your work.

Cheers

[stephend]

Can I be an idiot and ask what 'unguided mount' means?

Great picture!

[Craig_L]

Hi Stephend,

Just means I didn't use another scope and camera to help guide the mount and main scope using software like PHD Guiding, Guidemaster etc, in order to smoothe out small variations in the mount's tracking. Do a google on Autoguiding.

Craig

[MrB]

Nice image Craig, on reading the thread title though, I thought you had pics of the Volcano ;)

[dugnsuz]

Very nice Eta,
Hello from Hahndorf!
Does the LXD55 have an autoguider port? If so, push those exposures up to 5 mins+,
your Tak will produce some lovely stuff judging by this pic.
Cheers
Doug

[Craig_L]

Hi Doug,

No, the LX55 doesn't have an autoguiding port but I recently bought a HEQ5 but haven't been game to get it out of the box and set it up. Seems a bit daunting this autoguiding after trying it with the LX55. Two many late nights getting nowhere. But I guess I'll have to try - eventually.

Craig

[Craig_L]

"ETNA" - MrB, spelling is not my strong point, neither is red wine. :P