Request for dslr info

[Dennis G]

As a raw beginner with the DSLR camera, I direct these questions to an experienced user of a Canon 1000D camera, using the telescope as the camera lens. (Camera lens not used)
Cloud cover at sundown has prevented normal astro photography. A gap between clouds, Jan 22 at 5 pm, I managed to take 10 identical pictures of the moon with the camera attached to the Polar mounted LX90 8 inch scope before the sky closed over once more. I successfully loaded these 10 JPG stills into Registax but their huge size –137.16 x 91.44 cm, made it impossible to process. Back in the computer these pics were reduced to 20 cm wide and were workable. Being taken in full daylight they were all noise, but the exercise provided confidence and given reasonable conditions under dark sky I would succeed.
This then begs the question :Should I reduce the QUALITY SETTING to Medium or low to reduce the picture size? Or is there some other method or setting that will reduce size but not quality?

[Visionoz]

Hi

Most use the "RAW" format, then import into DeepSkyStacker (http://deepskystacker.free.fr/english/download.htm) (a freebie, very good one at that!) when processing - personally I use DSS - Registax I tried and gave up (I suss that it is better for planetary or moon shots when shot with a webcam/CCD camera producing AVIs), perhaps others more experienced can give you better advice

HTH
Cheers
Bill

[Garyh]

Hi Dennis, like Bill mentions, use RAW for your astrophotos, going to a lower quality jpg will only give you less detail.
For a free program get Deepskystacker for this, for moon and planet pics with your DSLR it`s not worth trying to stack 10 or so images as you won`t see any difference, you will need 100`s if not more to tease out the details with them. Registax is great for planetary and lunar images but is more suited to ccd`s that capture avi`s and fast frame rates.
The idea of stacking deepsky pics is to reduce the effects of thermal noise when doing such long exposures, something that is of no comcern with lunar shots.
cheers Gary

[Kal]

Dennis,

Always capture at the maximum resolution and image quality camera settings. It only takes a couple of second to resize the image on a pc.

You can resize an image with just about any image editing software, even plain old M$ paint.

[Dennis G]

Sorry Guys I failed to open the replies correctly. Thanks for your info it will be put to good use
Dennis

[Dennis G]

DSLR Processing in DEEPSKY STACKER
Thanks to all for your assistance. Using 5 jpg stills taken late afternoon, the camera set to AV iso 1600. as previous submission, Stacked them in Deep Sky Stacker with success although had problems with the sliders and set all to zero, saved the image and processed it in Photoshop. Camera Quality was set to both Raw + JPG but although the instructions state both are recorded I cannot find the Raw images. Will follow your suggestion and change to just Raw. Have Covington’s book, but feel there’s much to learn, any suggestions for more up to date reading?