Scorpius/Sagittarius widefield (done "properly"!)

[StephenM]

Hi All,

Having just learnt how to drive Deep Sky Stacker a couple of days ago (when stacking images of an ISS pass), I decided to try and do a "proper" widefield shot of the galactic centre.

For this image I used 25 x 8 second exposures taken with a tripod-mounted Pentax K100D and 50mm f/1.4 lens set at f/2.0 and 800 iso. I also did 20 darks. After stacking in DSS, I adjusted levels, curves, red channel and contrast in PS7. These PS adjustments were rather random, I just played around until I thought the image looked OK. The end result is nothing too spectacular compared to most of the images posted on this forum, but I guess you have to start somewhere, and I'm happy to have picked up 13 Messier objects from what was a very light polluted sky! Looking forward to repeating this from a dark sky when I get the chance...

Any comments or advice will be greatfully received!

Cheers,
Stephen

[Bloodbean]

Hi Stephen,

Looks good considering it wasn't on an EQ platform. :thumbsup: I did have a little play around with the colour using Nebulosity and the "Adjust colour background" option and have uploaded it below. Would be great to try it from a nice dark location with no light pollution! ;)

Troy

[StephenM]

Thanks very much Troy! Your adjustments improve the image a lot. I'll have to play a bit more with PS7 and see if I can achieve a similar result.

Cheers,
Stephen

[StephenM]

Alright, here's another adjusted version which I think is an improvement. I've adjusted the colour levels (-30/-10/+10 for R/G/B) and then pushed the contrast up again (+10). It's not as big a change as that which Troy made - I haven't found a way of doing this with PS7. Anyway, feel free to give advice if you'd like!

Cheers,
Stephen

[Rob_K]

Nice one Stephen! :thumbsup: Noticed another little thing in there, the recently-discovered nova (Nova Sagittarii 2009 No. 3). Have marked it in on your shot & put an enlargement in the bottom left corner, hope you don't mind!

Cheers -

[TrevorW]

Stephen

try adjusting your RGB levels and then adjust the colour balance

there is a lot that can be extracted considering this is not the original file

play around until you think it looks the way it should

Cheers

[dannat]

btw I reckon at 50mm you could get 30sec on a tripod with little star drift

[telecasterguru]

Fantastic advice that I can also use. The image is looking better and better.

Frank

[bojan]

It seems you managed to catch Nova Sagitarii.
It must be visible on original, have a look, I marked the rough position with a circle, there is a glimpse of it in the centre :-)

UPPS, I am not the only one.. Sorry, Rob, I did not have a proper look at your post :shrug:

[StephenM]

Thanks Rob. And thanks for pointing out the Nova! I had no idea it was there!



Thanks very much for the advice Trevor. I take it you made these adjustments in PS? I'll have a bit more of a play with the levels.



You're probably right Daniel. I certainly will be able to extend the exposure time with my 18-50 lens as it only opens up to f4.5.



Yes Frank, this forum is a great source of advice! Hopefully with a bit more fiddling I can improve the image further.



Thanks for pointing out the Nova, Bojan! As I said above, I had no idea it was there!

Cheers,
Stephen

[hotspur]

Thats a fine result,good work

When you ever want to visit,you can use my observatory and its equipment-there is a permanatly set up refractor on EQ mount on singal coloum,(no tripod to fall over)

that u can put your camera on,and do some photos under country skies.

i am sure you could gets some pics to stack.

keep going at your own pace,

regards chris

[multiweb]

Looks good Stephen - focus is spot on. Just processing to sort out and get the most out of your data. Well done again. :thumbsup:

[StephenM]

Thanks for the comments Chris and Marc!

I've been playing around some more with the image, and here is the latest version. It's getting better, but probably still needs more work.

Cheers,
Stephen

[Lumen Miner]

Hey stephen, I have over processed my images and was bored until later when I can take some more....

I ran your image through Nebulosity (I recommend this), adjusted the background, then fiddled with contrast/brightness in Gimp (I love freeware!!).

I was trying to keep as much detail as possible for you... I think I did alright, but as you know i'm only beginning... Sorry I should have asked before editing....

Edit~ Actually I am not so happy with that, I messed up some of the clusters and lost stars... Sorry


Edit2~ Tried again, separated a few of the star mistakes. A lil' better.