Omega Centauri

[peeb61 (Paul)]

Here is an image I took last night...Omega Centauri. (I was dodging the clouds for a good part of the night before they rolled in good and thick.)

Composite of 21 x 30 sec and 2 x 30 darks using my Canon 350D.
I've adjusted brightness and contrast, cropped and used unsharp mask.

Stacked using DSS. (What a great program)

I also think I need to tweak my focusing a little bit more. (Using 10-1 focuser on Saxon ED80)

Quick question...Do I process the images before stacking or after with the final result?

Any other tips anyone can offer would be helpful.


Paul

[bluescope]

Hi Paul

You process after stacking because you don't want to possibly loose any of the data before DSS has finished it's job.

One suggestion I'd make is that you don't compress your images too much for posting. Resize the finished pic to approx 800 pixels wide and then get as close to the 200kb file size as you can for jpeg to give best detail without artifacts OK !

Keep at it !

Steve

[peter_4059 (Peter)]

Great image Paul - focus looks good.

[peeb61 (Paul)]

Thanks Peter for your kind words and Steve I must admit I did compress it down a bit too much in future I will adjust my images to those settings you gave me.

As for processing after stacking...this makes great sense! Thank you.

This stacking think was a bit on the deep side for me at first and I'm just starting to get my teeth into it and am starting to get some good first time results.

Roll on for those really clear nights!

Paul

[bluescope]

No worries Paul

I'm looking forward to clear nights as well .... it's raining here right now !

[Robert_T]

Hey Paul, I'm a complete a novice at this DSLR imaging game, but I thought your omega looks great... Stars resolved almost all the way to the centre...hope we can get some clear skies soon so I can give it a go myself

[peeb61 (Paul)]

Thanks Robert,
I've had this camera for over two years and it's the best investment I've made so far, daytime and night time.

I've resized the image as Steve suggested and this is it from my original post.

Many thanks
Paul