Not posted in so long....

[Eggmoon (Geoff)]

Was trying to sort out polar alignment and using PHD the other night. Failed. Need to really work on that.

But this is an unguided Carina, 8 mins (16 x 30 sec) at 6400ISO through a UHC filter.

[astronobob (Bob)]

Nice going Geoff, have to say you have done well for 30secs unguided, speshly at this focal length, slight eggy stars but not bad at all
I see you have a few photos on here now and the images a becoming betterra I really like your Juup animation also, top work on that

Ive also had a go processing your Eta Car Image, I thought to show that Processing images does play a big part in the final results in images and there are a few main things that can help an image. Your image has good information/data in it, but it does take time to learn how to process astro images for there full worth and I'm still only half way there
In this repro I have done a few basic steps (in Photoshop CS3) to show some potential in your captures !
1) applied 3 areas of Noise reduction, dark areas, mid tone range and brightest zones separately with a 5'ish pixel feather.
2) Increased Levels with approx 15 pixel feather in the same three zones as above at appropriate strengths (minus the stars so not to blow-out)
3) Selected just the stars with Magic wand, increased selection by 2 pixels & a 1 pixel feather, then applied a 1 pixel blur and saturated the colors.
4) Did another weak Noise reduction over the entire image & applied some selective sharpening !

There are tho many ways to go about processing, and it can only comes with practice, my methods in this example are not to be taken as gospel but just a generalization to some areas of basic processing features that can do quite a bit of improvement, Noise, levels, stars & sharpening

Hope this is of help

[kosh]

It's a pretty nice capture there Geoff. Almost has a 3D property to it ( to me anyway ) .

Bob I like what you have done with the image. Maybe you can have a go at some of mine sometime

[Eggmoon (Geoff)]

Bob,

Thanks for the work... sounds like it took you ages! I readily admit I am a total newbie at image processing, but enjoying learning as I go. Once I sort out a good polar alignment and can take some longer images I will have to work more on processing.

Thanks for the tips though.... even if a lot of it did go way over my head!

Geoff.

[astronobob (Bob)]

Originally Posted by Eggmoon

Bob,

Thanks for the work... sounds like it took you ages! I readily admit I am a total newbie at image processing, but enjoying learning as I go. Once I sort out a good polar alignment and can take some longer images I will have to work more on processing.

Thanks for the tips though.... even if a lot of it did go way over my head!

Geoff.

No worries Geoff, I was a little fussier than decription and prob took about 20-30 mins, no probs as had the time and nothing better to do : )
Just asking tho, what program are you using for processing, Are you familiar with 'Noise handling' 'Levels & Curves adjustments' ? ?

If you look up 'Photo Shop Tutes' on YouTube, should be some nice 5-10 min vids there to give some insights with processing !

[astronobob (Bob)]

http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=astro%20photos hop%20tutes&sm=12

[SimmoW (SIMON)]

Originally Posted by astronobob

Nice going Geoff, have to say you have done well for 30secs unguided, speshly at this focal length, slight eggy stars but not bad at all
I see you have a few photos on here now and the images a becoming betterra I really like your Juup animation also, top work on that

Ive also had a go processing your Eta Car Image, I thought to show that Processing images does play a big part in the final results in images and there are a few main things that can help an image. Your image has good information/data in it, but it does take time to learn how to process astro images for there full worth and I'm still only half way there
In this repro I have done a few basic steps (in Photoshop CS3) to show some potential in your captures !
1) applied 3 areas of Noise reduction, dark areas, mid tone range and brightest zones separately with a 5'ish pixel feather.
2) Increased Levels with approx 15 pixel feather in the same three zones as above at appropriate strengths (minus the stars so not to blow-out)
3) Selected just the stars with Magic wand, increased selection by 2 pixels & a 1 pixel feather, then applied a 1 pixel blur and saturated the colors.
4) Did another weak Noise reduction over the entire image & applied some selective sharpening !

There are tho many ways to go about processing, and it can only comes with practice, my methods in this example are not to be taken as gospel but just a generalization to some areas of basic processing features that can do quite a bit of improvement, Noise, levels, stars & sharpening

Hope this is of help

hey great tips. What is the command/method of increasing the magic wand selection by 2 pixels? Thks, simon

[astronobob (Bob)]

Hi Simon, when you make the magic wand selection, go upto to the selection tab at top of PS and click the 'Modify' option and select 'expand' and set to two pixels

[Eggmoon (Geoff)]

Originally Posted by astronobob

No worries Geoff, I was a little fussier than decription and prob took about 20-30 mins, no probs as had the time and nothing better to do : )
Just asking tho, what program are you using for processing, Are you familiar with 'Noise handling' 'Levels & Curves adjustments' ? ?

If you look up 'Photo Shop Tutes' on YouTube, should be some nice 5-10 min vids there to give some insights with processing !

Bob..... starting to get up with those things.... mainly using Deep Sky Stacker, or AVIStack2 for planets. With a bit of total novice photoshop work after that.... steep learning curve... but then, the stars will still be there for years to come... :-)