My first astro photos from last night - HELP!

[prova]

first time out with my Nikon D40 DSLR and 8" Skywatcher together last night..

these (horrible) pictures attached is the best of what i came up with and not sure what i'm doing wrong?

i was alternating between ISO400 & 800 and using a remote to open and close the shutter and method of photography was prime focus

any initial help would be greatly appreciated..

[lineout]

Couple of comments:

1. Don't be disheartened. These are great first attempts. You should see mine (maybe you won't as I'm so embarrased)
2. Get yourself focusing software like DLSR Focus or ImagePlus. These will help you to get pin-sharp focus.
3. Did you stack, take darks or flats?
4. Are these the raw images or are the processed? You will find post-processing will help to get your photos looking better.
5......and most importantly keep at it!!!!!! You will get better the more you stick at it.

Cheers,

Rene

[Ric]

The main one is the focus, I think you will get a lot closer with the aid of a Hartmann mask and then fine tune with the focussing software as above.

None the less it is a good start and you are on your way now and things will improve with practice.

Cheers

[leon]

Rene is dead right, keep at it, things will improve, my first go at anything were shockers.

Focusing is the key to pin point stars, plus of coarse good tracking/guiding.

However for a first go you have done well, keep at it.

Leon

[prova]

thanks guys, don't feel so bad now!

i wasn't even using a laptop to take the pics, just holding my little remote near the camera then open/close the shutter ..

so as per Rene's (lineout) post, should i install the software then take the pics from the laptop not the remote?

as for stacking, i have deepskystacker but not sure what you mean by dark's and flats .. ?

appreciate the help

[Garyh]

Originally Posted by prova

thanks guys, don't feel so bad now!

i wasn't even using a laptop to take the pics, just holding my little remote near the camera then open/close the shutter ..

so as per Rene's (lineout) post, should i install the software then take the pics from the laptop not the remote?

as for stacking, i have deepskystacker but not sure what you mean by dark's and flats .. ?

appreciate the help

Hi,
yeah if you can get your lappy or pc to your scope that would be great! as focus seems the first hurdle. Even if you take a image and quickly download it to the computer to check focus then readjust the focus and check again. After several goes you should get it pretty spot on..
Having a 8" on a eq5 mount it would be best to keep unguided exposures rather short and less than 30 seconds ( some trail and error here, you may find that only half of your 30 sec exposures are any good)and use a high iso to get as many photons as possible. Take heaps of them like 20-40 or more then stack them in deepskystacker. I don`t know the D40 but shot in RAW format and take darks or better use ICNR if your camera does that.
A dark is simply a photo taken with your lense cap on so no light gets to your sensor at all and the same length exposure as your normal photos. Make sure you take your darks throughout your run as they are temperature sensitive.
Than just load your iamges and darks in DSS and check them and stack them you should be on your way.
Hope this helps..but have fun
Gary

[RB (Andrew)]

Prova your main concern here is focus.
Once you get focus right you can then work on image processing, stacking etc.

Image #1 & #2 were 30 sec exp at 800 ISO and image #3 was only 10 sec at 1600 ISO.
For such short exposures you're off to a good start and once you get focus sorted out you will see a big improvement.

[prova]

thanks again, going down to Melbourne for the F1 so will try again mid next week and post my updated results!

cheers

[Bassnut (Fred)]

How long were the exposures??????????? if only a few seconds, youve got some serious tracking/alingment issues there, that needs to be sorted 1st . Darks and flats??, read up some dude, or you will get very disheartend quickly.

[multiweb (Marc)]

Originally Posted by prova

thanks again, going down to Melbourne for the F1 so will try again mid next week and post my updated results!

cheers

Seriously that looks better than the first pictures I took
Before you worry about focus, try to sort out your tracking.
If you're not guiding (I assume you don't) you need to polar align your scope best as you can. You'll need to do a lot of reading before you get a clear picture but don't despair, you'll find all the info you need searching these forums and you'll get there.