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First real attempt at Deep sky imaging
- michaeloconnell
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20 years 4 months ago #3064
by michaeloconnell
First real attempt at Deep sky imaging was created by michaeloconnell
I tried my hand at a bit of deep sky astrophotography last night. Below is the result:
Details:
LX90 @ f/10 in alt-az mode, 18 x 30sec exposures, ISO 1600.
Sky was a bit hazy and a 75% moon didn't help either, except for purposes of having something to focus onto prior to taking the images.
As I'm a bit new to all this deep sky imaging stuff, I have a couple of questions:
1) Was ISO 1600 a little too much for the conditions or would 800 have been better?
2) I deliberately softened the final shot a bit to make it a bit more aesthetically pleasing? Do I go too far with it? Should I have left it alone?
The way it is now reminds me of how it would look on film.
3) Any other tips?
First I had to manually align and rotate each image in Photoshop- very time consuming!!! When they were all aligned, I then merged them all. I saved my result twice. With one of the images I altered the brightness, contrast, saturation, hue and levels to bring out the stars. I did something similar in the other image to bring out the detail in the nebula itself. Then I merged the two. Took me most of today to just get this one image!
Any suggestions on how to improve on this would be greatly appreciated.
Michael
Details:
LX90 @ f/10 in alt-az mode, 18 x 30sec exposures, ISO 1600.
Sky was a bit hazy and a 75% moon didn't help either, except for purposes of having something to focus onto prior to taking the images.
As I'm a bit new to all this deep sky imaging stuff, I have a couple of questions:
1) Was ISO 1600 a little too much for the conditions or would 800 have been better?
2) I deliberately softened the final shot a bit to make it a bit more aesthetically pleasing? Do I go too far with it? Should I have left it alone?
The way it is now reminds me of how it would look on film.
3) Any other tips?
First I had to manually align and rotate each image in Photoshop- very time consuming!!! When they were all aligned, I then merged them all. I saved my result twice. With one of the images I altered the brightness, contrast, saturation, hue and levels to bring out the stars. I did something similar in the other image to bring out the detail in the nebula itself. Then I merged the two. Took me most of today to just get this one image!
Any suggestions on how to improve on this would be greatly appreciated.
Michael
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- voyager
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20 years 4 months ago #3065
by voyager
My Home Page - www.bartbusschots.ie
Replied by voyager on topic Re: First real attempt at Deep sky imaging
Cool!
The colours came out really well! Goes to show that in this day of CCDs and web cams there is still a lot to be said for good old "wet" photography!
BB
The colours came out really well! Goes to show that in this day of CCDs and web cams there is still a lot to be said for good old "wet" photography!
BB
My Home Page - www.bartbusschots.ie
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- michaeloconnell
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20 years 4 months ago #3068
by michaeloconnell
Replied by michaeloconnell on topic Re: First real attempt at Deep sky imaging
Ooopps - I meant to say that the camera I have is the Canon EOS 300d (digital slr).
Sorry to disappoint you Bart!
Michael
Sorry to disappoint you Bart!
Michael
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- stepryan
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20 years 4 months ago #3069
by stepryan
Replied by stepryan on topic Re: First real attempt at Deep sky imaging
micheal,
great image, well done.
stephen.
great image, well done.
stephen.
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- voyager
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20 years 4 months ago #3070
by voyager
Bugger!
Well, it's a good advertisment for Digital SLR cameras so!
BB
My Home Page - www.bartbusschots.ie
Replied by voyager on topic Re: First real attempt at Deep sky imaging
Ooopps - I meant to say that the camera I have is the Canon EOS 300d (digital slr).
Sorry to disappoint you Bart!
Michael
Bugger!
Well, it's a good advertisment for Digital SLR cameras so!
BB
My Home Page - www.bartbusschots.ie
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- dave_lillis
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20 years 4 months ago #3093
by dave_lillis
Dave L. on facebook , See my images in flickr
Chairman. Shannonside Astronomy Club (Limerick)
Carrying around my 20" obsession is going to kill me,
but what a way to go.
+ 12"LX200, MK67, Meade2045, 4"refractor
Replied by dave_lillis on topic Re: First real attempt at Deep sky imaging
Hi Michael,
Nice one, , you can just make out 2 stars in the center of that nebula, have you worked out whats the faintest magnitude star you cought in that pic ??
I also find image processing a very time consuming operation, much longer then you actually spend at the scope.
You could start up a new hobby as a graphic artist
Nice one, , you can just make out 2 stars in the center of that nebula, have you worked out whats the faintest magnitude star you cought in that pic ??
I also find image processing a very time consuming operation, much longer then you actually spend at the scope.
You could start up a new hobby as a graphic artist
Dave L. on facebook , See my images in flickr
Chairman. Shannonside Astronomy Club (Limerick)
Carrying around my 20" obsession is going to kill me,
but what a way to go.
+ 12"LX200, MK67, Meade2045, 4"refractor
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