[Retrograde (Pete)]

Originally Posted by strongmanmike

You could photograph those prints so you had a digital version..?

Mike

Ideally I would like to scan them to avoid reflections from the glossy paper they're printed on.

Originally Posted by silv

Hey Pete,

indeed that algorithm (in DSS as well) I was referring to.

Your astrophotography background, I understand, is from pre-digital times.
So you might just be used to so many detected stars because film showed what film got.

You could play around with that parameter in DSS and see whether you like your image with less stars in the background, too.
From what I remember, DSS doesn't reduce the image or detail quality when you reduce the amount of detected stars.
Have a go and compare results?

Thanks silv that's good info. I'll give it a go when I get a chance & see what I can come up with

Originally Posted by cazza132

Nice work Pete. Blacks clipped a tad much maybe. I don't mind the diffraction spikes, but they will show up more when you stop down. Great first attempt! More subs will allow more stretching of the darker end of the histogram with less noise. What mount did you use for tracking?

Thanks Troy. Yep black is probably clipped a touch more than I would've liked. I used multiple iterations of noise reduction so it's far from smooth (which is partly being hidden by the clipping).

I'm not sure about the spikes myself. If I find an aperture I'm happy with then I might even try making up a circular field-stop to fit in the front. Hopefully the lens might be long enough not to suffer from too much vignetting.
I used a Vixen Super Polaris mount that I've had since 1985. I'm amazed it still worrks so well as I've done nothing to it. That said I've pretty much reached the limit of what I can do with it as I need longer subs at lower ISO to reduce the noise etc.