Orion

[Crushellon (Tim)]

So I photographed the Orion nebula a couple of weeks ago now with an old point and shoot and I decided to do it again with my 550D. Attached is my old photo with the point and shoot and basic pixinsight processing as well as my new DSLR shot with more advanced pixinsight processing.

550D:
50mm f1.8 @ f4.5 iso1600 10sec
131 Lights
101 Bias
35 Darks
31 Flats

Powershot sx100is
6.0-60mm f/2.8-4.3 (35mm film equivalent: 36-360mm) set @ 60mm f2.8
180 Lights @ 10sec
40 Darks
40 Bias

Hi Res:
550D, http://www.astrobin.com/full/243773/0/
Powershot, http://www.astrobin.com/242970/

The powershot is quite impressive actually imo... I preffer the core of the orion nebula in that shot, but I captured much more in the 550D shot. I might have a go at reprocessing the 550D data the same way I did the powershot data.

[rustigsmed (Russell)]

looking good Tim, is there anymore faint stuff to be dug out of the 550d shot? looks like there could be a bit more hidden away there. but nice and sharp nonetheless!

Russ

[raymo]

Good start Tim. The Orion Neb is one of the hard ones to image well, due to
the huge dynamic range within it. Later on you will have to take some very short subs for the core, and much longer ones for the detail in the Nebula,
and combine them in Photoshop, or whatever software you use.
raymo

[Crushellon (Tim)]

Yes Russ, there is definitely more detail that could get drawn out of the data, if you stretch the final calibrated and stacked image you can the the faint stuff in Orion and you can even see the horse head pretty clearly if you're looking for it. The problem is, as someone who is very inexperienced in all aspects of AP including processing, drawing it out while keeping the noise at a level that my low skills can still manage to process is quite difficult. I think it will be a lot easier once I'm tracking with with an eq mount instead of the Goto dob that I'm using as I'll be able to use 800iso and roll back a lot of the noise. Also with more practice I'll be able to better manage noise levels in my processing.

[raymo]

I think you'll find very little difference in noise between 800 and 1600
with your 550D. I never bother with 800 with my 1100D, just means
longer subs for an extremely small improvement in noise.
raymo