[lazjen (Chris)]

Originally Posted by pfitzgerald

And I for one wish they were still here as I hadn't copied them before the crash. :-(

Currently I'm using Nebulosity and then PS so I have very similar questions.

If the OP are able to re-post their suggestions that would be awesome.

Paul

PS Lazjen it's a nice image and apologies for the mini hijack ;-).

Thanks.

I've got some of the replies because I was subscribed to the thread, but not all of them because of the way it does notifications. Here's some of what I got:

rustigsmed has just replied to a thread you have subscribed to entitled - M20 Trifid Nebula + Questions - in the Beginners Astrophotography forum of IceInSpace.

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hi chris,

nice job.

1. if you are worried about star bloat, you could try reducing it through photo editing rather than reducing ISO. http://darkhorizons.emissionline.com/PSStarBloat.htm
http://www.flemingastrophotography.com/starbloat.html
I believe there are a number of other methods, like copying the stars from a less intense image over the stretched image.


2. After the image is stacked in DSS i usually go straight to PS and or Astra Image.

3. I can't answer question regarding PI, its something I too am looking into, and i've stopped for now till reading the CPU system requirements, will need a new computer!!

cheers,

rusty

DJT has just replied to a thread you have subscribed to entitled - M20 Trifid Nebula + Questions - in the Beginners Astrophotography forum of IceInSpace.

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Thats a great image with good detail and nicely processed. Well done.

With DSS, what I do is manually match the temperatures of the darks with the lights with a ratio of 2:1 then DSS create the master.

I use Backyard Eos to manage the capture process which records the temperatures of both types in the file names so its a pretty straight forward process.

The master dark I dont use again though unless restacking the same image, as there are too many variables in temperature night to night and when using a DSLR .

DSS wont take notice of the temperatures, you do have to manually match them though I believe there is some software knocking around that can do it for you. Over time I built a library of darks on those cloudy nights so you are not wasting imaging time.

I personally never do any pre-processing in DSS. If you are using photoshop your really dont need to and that includes letting DSS align channels. It means your start point in Photoshop is off.

I have also tried Nebulosity for registering images but find the workflow with DSS suits my needs at the moment plus of course its free and does the job very well and is indeed simple...

Get polar alignment and guiding sorted ..one step at a time

Jon has just replied to a thread you have subscribed to entitled - M20 Trifid Nebula + Questions - in the Beginners Astrophotography forum of IceInSpace.

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Hi Chris,

After worrying a bit about data loss etc. I found that asking the 32-bit output from DSS then converting that to 16-bit in photoshop gave solid results.

I haven't mastered StarTools yet, but everyone seems to be saying good things about it.

Jon has just replied to a thread you have subscribed to entitled - M20 Trifid Nebula + Questions - in the Beginners Astrophotography forum of IceInSpace.

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---Quote (Originally by lazjen)---
How do you convert the 32bit output? I have to save 16bit TIFFs for PS to operate on. Nothing else seems to work.
---End Quote---
This vexed me for ages, till I discovered it. In PS open the native DSS 32-bit TIFF that DSS autosaves, then choose Image->Mode->16 Bit. Use the "Exposure and Gamma" setting in the drop down menu ( the default is "Local Adaptation".)

Then play with curves, intensity and filters as you like.

It seems I had most of the advice given, from memory...