M3

Hi all,
Thought I would share/bore you with my latest images. been getting over an extremely bad chest infection so I was aloud out to play until 4 am this morning, now I'm dying again, but don't tell her indoors :roll:
even considering this is my third serious attempt, I will have to mark my report card with "Could do better". seriously though, I did find M3 difficult, perhaps because seeing was not terrific. There was a biting wind blowing, and a constant battle with dew, but I kept my cool :lol: No processing done. the first M3 was: LX90, DSI, 50 x 2 second frames autostacked in autostar suite. Could probably do with a bit more time, perhaps 3 second exposures, along with a bit more focus, tracking seems off mainly at the bottom of the image.

www.irishastronomy.org/user_resources/files/1115664015-M3-1.jpg

second image was as above but 50 frames at 1 second. Brain-fade made me reduce the exposure time instead of increase :roll:

www.irishastronomy.org/user_resources/files/1115664105-M3-2.jpg

I have some of M5 and another attempt at M13, I will post them when I get them off the laptop.
All in all, as an absolute beginner, I'm quite happy with them, My finding and centreing of the image is becoming faster as I get to know my equipment, and focusing is getting faster as well.
Bill H.

Bill - they're nice images. You don't seem to suffer from the 'graininess' that I get. Maybe its a function of the object being imaged or that you have darker skies than me.

Have a lash at a galaxy or two. The Sombrero is a little low but easy enough to find with goto. M101 and M64 are two other decently placed objects.

The guff that you see at the bottom (or top, or sides) of an image are down to tracking and show up in the stacked images - only because they don't overlap exactly. Just crop it.

Keep it up - there's a big improvement each time - same with meself!

Cheers

Dave MCD

ps - take it easy and get some soup down yer gob

Bill, better already than what i've ever got
Get over that infection!!

Keith..

Bill - they're nice images. You don't seem to suffer from the 'graininess' that I get. Maybe its a function of the object being imaged or that you have darker skies than me.

Hi Dave,
I find the graininess is there if I don't take a fresh batch of darks. I don't know why that might be! But I'm now developing the habit of taking a fresh batch and auto-deleting any existing darks each evening I image. Try it, maybe it's just coincidence with me, but I find it a nice time just gazing skyward as the DSI takes the darks, catching sattelites and meteorites and having a fag to clear my chest :lol: . as for galaxies, I'm still having probs with them :evil: I can get them centred perfect for the DSI, but I can't get them in focus, nothing is there! I don't know if the poor seeing at the moment is the cause, they are also extremely dim visually, I have to use averted vision. Anyway I keep trying.
Try your grainy image in registax. I had a very grainy image and tweaked it with the wavelets then a bit of contrast adjust and the graininess vanished.
your getting way ahead of me with the galaxies, they are coming up nicely, it won't be lomg until it's mastered. The DSI takes a bit of getting used to, but when mastered it will be great.
Bill H.

Great effort Bill, I also find focusing by far the hardest thing about these, maybe try M13 next time, its brighter so abit easier to focus.

Nice work Bill! I am actually getting jealous because I don't have the kind of stuff you guys do to get that kind of quality images!