Eta Carina

[ZeroID (Brent)]

After many trials & tribulations, DSS 3.3.3 is still not happy with SONY ARW files, but I can present some reasonably acceptable results.

Lunt 102mm ED f7, SONY SLT A77v, no filters. PHD Guiding.
30 frames , 20 secs @ ISO 800, + Darks
Converted to TIF, Stacked in DSS then post processed in PixBuilder Studio with levels, brightness\contrast, Sharpened, levels again. Then reduced to meet posting rules.

Imaging was not easy, high hazy cloud with gaps and a fair amount of LP as it was positioned towards the CBD in my Sth East sky but I seem to have captured a lot more fine detail and colour than previous efforts. I have more lights at 10 and 30 secs but they need converting to TIF and the PC here at work is struggling.
Comments and critique welcome.

[stardust steve (Steve)]

Good job. LP from the city and Moon can be testing.
Processing at work that's the go

[gbeal]

Deeper, longer!!!!
Then try some CA removal.
I expected more field curvature, or coma, and assume you didn't yes a flattener? If not then it looks great.
Gary

[E_ri_k (Erik)]

Great job, looks good! Some nice colours in the nebula Light pollution sucks, I'm lucky to not suffer from much. Longer subs will bring out more. Have you looked at light pollution filters?
Erik

[ZeroID (Brent)]

Hi Gary, no flattener, I've been quite surprised how flat the field is on the Lunt and also the low noise and absence of amp glow on the A77 as well. The longer F7 on the Lunt over the F5 Skywatcher and the bigger, better objective of course seems to be managing quite well.
This was shot through a hole in the clouds which for some reason stayed clear while all around was covered, cloud gods must have been feeling beneficent. But there was a lot of high haze not helping either.
LP kills the frames pretty quickly if I go too long and I haven't got a 2" LP filter, the 1.25 introduces some vignetting and reflections but I'll try another arrangement of bits to fix some of that.
Major problem is I am having some problems with DS 3.3.3 handling the SONY ARW raw files. (I think ) If I stack a larger number it all goes white or stripey with vertical lines. Seems slightly better on the old XP SP3 at work than my Win 7 64 bit at home. It's erratic and annoying when you've spent a hour or two registering and assessing frames to have it all go kaput at the end.

[gavcol (G)]

Great Shot Brent

I am too working on Eta at the moment. Similar issues here regarding LP .

I am also having issues in DSS with my camera, Cannon 1100D, I have to change the RAW CR2 images to TIFF (in which I loose resolution /size because I am using a freeware program which can't handle large files too well) which is time consuming and a pain in the butt!

I will definitely keeping an eye on your progress, keep em coming.

Regards

Gav

[multiweb (Marc)]

That's looking good. There's a Baader filter called a fringe killer that's about $55.00 so very affordable that will get rid of purple halos on stars. I use it all the time when I shoot colors through lenses. Does a good job.

[5ash (Philip)]

Originally Posted by ZeroID

After many trials & tribulations, DSS 3.3.3 is still not happy with SONY ARW files.

Are you using the beta version of DSS ? I use it with my ARW files from my nex5 and it works fine. DSS , normal version does not work with ARW files.
Regards philip

[Larryp (Laurie)]

Nice, Brett!

[gbeal]

Originally Posted by 5ash

Are you using the beta version of DSS ? I use it with my ARW files from my nex5 and it works fine. DSS , normal version does not work with ARW files.
Regards philip

I was thinking the same thing, try the latest beta version, if you haven't already done so. Works with mine (a700 and Fuji X-Pro).
Gary

[ZeroID (Brent)]

Originally Posted by 5ash

Are you using the beta version of DSS ? I use it with my ARW files from my nex5 and it works fine. DSS , normal version does not work with ARW files.
Regards philip

Yep, using the beta version, sometimes it works, sometimes it don't. Very frustrating.

And thanks for the Baader Filter suggestion Marc, I'll book some clouds in and take a look at purchasing one.