Orion's Belt

[TheAstroChannel (Sean)]

Hello all!

After weeks of windy, cloudy and rainy nights i finally managed to get outside on a beautiful clear night.

My favourite image i like to do this season is of the Orion Belt without a telescope. I want to get better so i can get more detail out of it without it becoming overcome by grain and noise. Any tips on how to make a better clearer image will be awesome!

http://s981.photobucket.com/user/the...tml?sort=3&o=0
8 Stacked images + Dark frames
Combined for a 24 second exposure.

Sony A57 DSLR with Tamron Zoom

ISO 1600
Each frame 3.2 seconds.
f/4

[silv (Annette)]

I love Orion's Belt, too

Long Exposure Noise Reduction might be a feature in your Sony when shooting ARW?
This feature adds a second exposure of the same duration to each frame.

Lower ISO would also of course help. In turn needing more frames to gather enough signal.

--> Both tools would result in the star field drifting if you do not have a means to counter earth rotation.

But... you do have something to counter earth rotation, don't you?

If not: you could build a barndoor mount on those rainy, cloudy nights...

[Tony_ (Tony)]

longer exposures would be better for starters. Also more subs.
Your image can be improved by more processing in photoshop - I had a quick go at it, not perfect but better (I think). There's still a fair bit of chromatic purple around the stars and there's a lot of noise.

Regards,
Tony.

[TheAstroChannel (Sean)]

I have never tried shooting in a format other than Jpeg.. Perhaps i should try

I also have a mount, but the power adapter for it broke recently so until i find another power adapter I'm stuck with quick exposures.

[silv (Annette)]

re RAW(sony ARW) : you'd get a much better handle on post processing re noise and colors if you were using ARW/RAW.



your camera supports shooting both, JPG and ARW simultaneously, I assume.
Not sure about the availability of the software feature Long Exposure Noise Reduction on ARW if JPEG is turned on, as well, though.
Give it a try and see the difference in shooting result and postprocessing depth?

[TheAstroChannel (Sean)]

How do i change the Sony to shoot in RAW?

[Ross G]

A nice capture Sean.

Good to see astro photos taken with a Sony.

To shoot RAW, go to the "QUALITY" section in the camera's menu and choose "RAW & JPEG".

Good luck.

Ross.