I wold like to know how much time - roughly speaking - one would spend infront of their computer processing the images taken nights before to reach the final product. Im not talking about image aquisition, only the processing. This includes all darks, flats, colours etc. and if false colour or narrowband imaging takes longer or shorter times?
I ask, because i would like to have an idea of how much time it takes to get a fine final image.
The first rough process can take just a hour or so. But a finished image can be the work of days. And then there is the reprocessing of data, taking on board any advise given by other members.
It's truly a labour of love this hobby.
Your probably looking at around the same amount of time you put into the data acquisition to get a decent end product as a very rough rule of thumb Joshua, usually more. Getting a natural end product gets easier to more high quality data you have, and also with experience of course. There's so many possible workflows and so much to learn, most AP'ers have fun learning and trying different techniques all the time - everyone will have their own take on this however I expect.
Thanks all for the input,
Knowing what software is used to process images would help aswell - good suggestion. Curently i have the software that comes with camera - some of which isnt used for image processing. that is ccdops, ccdsoft, the sky V5, ccdsharp. Aswell as Adobe photoshop 6. then theres Deep sky stacker freeware off the net.
What do others use?
Which capture/stacking program is not so important, how well you know and use it is the key, an hr or two, depending a lot on how many subs there are. This process is fairly automated these days. PS skills are critical, thats half the battle of a good pic outcome over all, as important as the gear/capture. If you are a gun with PS, you really can make a silk purse from a sows ear. With average data, 8-10 hrs with PS (much less with pristine subs) is not unusual (lots of layer masking etc)
