DSLR Astrophotography

[ionic gate]

nikon d3100 + 28-100mm lens or Canon 500D + 28-80mm lens for untracked widefield

also these are on mpb rather than ebay so no auctions!

[twin pawn]

Get the Canon if you can. Has better filter support and has tutorials on modifying it for increased Ha sensitivity. Better for future upgradeability as you progress.

[ionic gate]

alright, it's a bit more expensive but you make a convincing argument

[twin pawn]

It'll be worth tbh

[untold sinew]

Would this be a good setup for starting tracked

+cannon 60d

[twin pawn]

I believe @west lark has some videos on his channel that show the 75-300 in action. I believes it's a great combo to start with.

[untold sinew]

yep saw those videos. Just gotta save the money

[fading osprey]

I really really really don’t recommend that lens, it’s breaks quickly from my experience and also last collimation within like 8-9 months. I also had to get it replaced once but it was still covered by warranty. The chromatic aberration on it is also pretty horrific and a pain in the butt to remove for a beginner, but @west lark may have something else to say about it as he’s a much better processor than me. But personally I’d recommend a vintage lens such as the asashi Pentax super takumar 200mm f/4. The 75-300 is also pretty bad if your on a budget bc of its high price point and bad quality, and should should be able to find the 75-300 used for wayy cheaper. I’ve seen them for only like $50-$100 (USD) on eBay, but there are some better options for that price point such as the super takumar and canon fd 135mm from what I’ve heard (at least for beginners)

[twin pawn]

He has a point lol

[fading osprey]

I also started using it mainly bc of delta Astro’s video and Astrobackyard’s but I really have no idea how they got such good results out of it bc even with my second copy of the lens it still sucked

Here are some of my shots with that lens (I am too embarrassed to send the andromeda one from my ig)

Also the helix nebula had the chromatic aberration removed by someone else

So it’s possible it’s just hard and makes the stars look ugly

[thin salmon]

...it's not a good lens for astro

You can maybe get ok results with a lot of exposure and processing, but it isn't gonna be great

I'd recommend saving for a roki or other high quality lens

[fading osprey]

Like here are some of my shots with the redcat51, so I’m not sure it’s that much of an issue on the processing end

[thin salmon]

Redcat is much much better

Vintage lenses aren't amazing either in my experience tbh. They work sure, but I had some very strange issues with mine

[fading osprey]

Yeah ik but like those were soo much easier and fun to process than the shots from the 75-300

[fading osprey]

Yeah they aren’t the best, but most are certainly better than modern lenses if your looking for one at a lower price point

[thin salmon]

Fair point

I still can't recommend the roki enough though if you can save an extra $100 or so

[fading osprey]

I mean if your willing to spend over $200/$300 get a modern lens

But if you wanna spend like below $200-$150 get a vintage imo

[twin pawn]

From my tests it seems Nikon kit lenses are hella better than canon kit lenses as far as chromatic aberrations.

[ionic gate]

at what price point do you start looking at telescopes instead?

[fading osprey]

Around $450-600 I’d say

[slow moon]

i got my scope for £45

[thin salmon]

That depends on a ton of factors

If you have a big mount, you can get a decent newt for super cheap

Ironically enough though, I really don't recommend fracs that aren't triplets or better, so that limits you to stuff over maybe $700

In other words, you can get a bigger (and cheaper) scope if you have a bigger mount. Though fracs certainly do have their advantages compared to newts

[thin salmon]

But this, I mean 3-400 for a 6 inch astrograph

[fading osprey]

Ah yes the $45 evoguide That you somehow pulled from another astrophotographer

(I still am baffled You got your hands on one for that cheap ever since you told the original story)

That’s like the price of an svbony guidescope

[quick mantle]

Mad lad thats cheap as hell

Damn

[thin salmon]

I mean for $45 that's pretty great lmao

[quick mantle]

Indeed a jackpot id say

[paper socket]

29* 3min 1hour 27minutes at ISO 1600. With stock Canon 6D on SW Quattro 8 and second hand ancient NEQ-6. 2x Drizzle, heavy dither and topazed, i did photometric calibration on another copy, and colors turned out very very close, so for some reason this turned out pretty natural colored.

[frosty phoenix]

That NAN and Pelican looks good

[fossil cradle]

My current 1hr and 54 min on Leo triplet

[twin pawn]

Thanks man!

[next kernel]

untracked?

[warm venture]

Uhh but none of those are pelican

[fossil cradle]

Tracked

[untold sinew]

Yessss

Snagged a tracker for 290 aud

193usd

Star adventurer

[frosty phoenix]

NAN and Pelican

[frosty phoenix]

Original here, Nan and pelican

[untold sinew]

Amazing image

I would love to try edit it and give it Hubble pallet

[frosty phoenix]

not mine.

but yeah, its a great image

[frosty phoenix]

If you ask the person im replying to, im sure you could probably get the data

[untold sinew]

K

[untold sinew]

Can I hAvE a gO aT tHaT nAn dAtA

[twin pawn]

Lmao

Yea I'll try to put it up in #1021002743080558642 later today

[twin pawn]

This is much newer data I have on ngc 7000

[frosty phoenix]

Woah

that looks sick

[twin pawn]

Thanks man, can't wait to shoot this with my l-eNhance this coming milky way season.

[balmy urchin]

3.7hrs over 3 nights

[ionic gate]

What aperture setting should I have for untracked widefield

1sec shutter speed, 1600 iso, 80mm lens

My dad says put it at the highest it has

That would be f36

[fading osprey]

Ooh pretty star colors

What scope?

[fading osprey]

For widefield you want the lowest aperture you can, as that would let more light shine on to your sensor

[balmy urchin]

A 250mm

lens

f4

[round salmon]

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1tSEbji6V4rYz81COybiD5LWaekULIQReJy7kZCxQy78/edit This helped me out a bunch

[next kernel]

he's giving you the exact opposite advice to what you should be doing

[twin pawn]

M83 through a 360mm fl doublet APO and a modified Canon EOS Rebel XSi

2.5 hour integration in B5 skies

SiriL, Photoshop CC 2023, Lightroom mobile for touchups

I swear the terrible compression is getting annoying

[fading osprey]

[chrome harbor]

thats not discord compression its the actual image

[twin pawn]

Yea it's not discords usual compression that's for sure, but it's also not the image. I've had this happen before when im on very weak internet connections, it seems like discord doesn't just wait for the full quality image to upload and instead uploads a very compressed version, more compressed than usual. Idk I guess I'll wait to upload images only in home wifi lol.

[twin pawn]

Here it is on a decent Internet connection.

[slow moon]

Is that ceres right in the middle?

Wait nevermind

[slow moon]

very nice

[fading osprey]

For me it’s a bit better now

[frail briar]

whats the diffrence between unmodded and modded XSI? I have one and I'm on the fence of modding it

I'll mod its baby brother the XS

[twin pawn]

My modification included removing the UV/IR cut filter and that was it. Pretty straightforward compared to other mods and doing this on newer DSLRs.

[frail briar]

did you replace the uvir with something clear?

and how big of a diffrence was it?🙂

[twin pawn]

Nah, the sensor is completely uncovered. I believe after removing the UV/IR cut filter the sensor is able to collect around 70% more Ha signal that before. I may be off but in general it's a rather significant increase in Ha sensitivity.

I dint really have any direct comparisons unfortunately

@frail peak has a great comparison between modified and stock canon DSLRs

[frail briar]

thanks😄

[twin pawn]

No problem

[vocal wyvern]

Sometimes in photography we say to shoot something wide open, or as high an appeturue as possible, meaning the lowest f number, so perhaps f2.8 would be wide open, and f36 is the lowest/least appeturue even though it has the highest representative number. The lower the number, the 'bigger' the appeturue

[ionic gate]

Ya I've realised it should be the lowest one not the highest

Got confused about which way round would be the brightest

[vocal wyvern]

I used to get them mixed up early on in my photography days too, which is why I mentioned it

[brazen crystal]

Orion is 10 mins flame and horsehead is 20 mins. my first 2 ever astrophotography photos btw

[spare fossil]

8 Hours on horsehead and orion nebula

[vocal wyvern]

Nice one!

[vocal wyvern]

Bet that feels good! Hopefully I'll be getting my first proper astroimages bloody soon too! Been waiting a month with my new Startracker mount, can't wait

[thin salmon]

This looks just like my image!

I'd never seen anything quite like it before. Really neat we came to such a similar result!

[brazen crystal]

💀

[untold sinew]

Yipeee

[lost flume]

What's a good dlsr to start with with astro and normal photography in mind with say £500 budget (preferably with flip screen)

[untold sinew]

Cannon 60d

It’s what I use

[lost flume]

That was one that I looked at, tried to find a 60da but very rare, what do you think of the t7i,

[fossil cradle]

Any used camera would be fine

Don’t go for the expensive ass new cameras cuz the used “older” ones work just as fine

And cost a lot less!

[twin pawn]

Canon T3i. There's a lot of reviews in it. Flip out screen. Easier to modify than newer DSLRs and is way below 200 I believe, or above 200 if you get it already astro modified.

[twin pawn]

If you can find a well priced one, the T7i would def be better as its newer. But idk about modification, it may be much more difficult since it's more advanced/newer.

[vocal wyvern]

I'm a Nikon DSLR owner and have a few good fast prime lenses, so wanted a nikon dslr body for astrophotography too. I just a bought a D5000 (with flip screen) for £200 off ebay

I think it has like only 3000 shutter releases!

[fading osprey]

Nice! Seems like a good deal. Hopefully you can get it astromodded in the future, so then you’ll have one cam for Astro and another for regular photography.

[vocal wyvern]

The D5000 is modded. AF still works too. Like I say, 3000 shutter releases, looks like bran new, all the charger bits and cables etc, flip screen and only £200, so I have both modded and none modded now. I chose this over paying £125 for a mod of my current nikon body for that reason, so I have both.

I'm gonna try buying a very cheap old Cannon DSLR next and try modding myself, and maybe even selling it on to see if I can make a few quid

If I could buy for £50, and sell for £100, might be worth it, I mean I'd pay £100 for a modded Canon Dslr, even with a higher shutter release number...would you?

[fading osprey]

Oh wow, I’d just say keep it for now because that seems like a good deal for such a low amount of shutter releases. However don’t take my opinion as your last

[fading osprey]

Yeah that would work, it could also serve as practice for future modding.

[scarlet pike]

and that really looks like @fallen grail image, man that is such a coinsedence.

[fallen grail]

they really do🤣 '

[lost flume]

Thanks everyone for all the advice, I'm not intending to have this one modified, I'm just starting off haven't even took an astrophoto yet, so after a camera for multi purpose

[brazen crystal]

who stole whos data 👀

[twin pawn]

Lmao

Tbh I inspected the two images side by side. Was just curious. The optics show different characteristics. No disrespect to @spare fossil of course. Huge ass coincidence lol.

[fallen grail]

Yeah they genuinely look identical at first but by blinking them side by side there are subtle differences that show them apart.

[scarlet pike]

hahaha. i have a friend that thinks all astro images are just fake.

idk why he thinks that

[tepid root]

2h carina nebula rokinon 135mm canon 5d mark iii stock

[thin salmon]

Yeah for sure

Mine was also slightly out of focus for a good bit of the aqusition, so a bit soft

I belive mine was 6h from b4 at f2

[tepid root]

A bit better Color’s maybe?

[vocal wyvern]

Does removing the IR/UV cut filter make much difference for DSO photography?

[untold sinew]

Big difference from when I did this target untracked

[steady lark]

Aaaa.....

[round salmon]

that looks so cool!

although its very very saturated, maybe turn it down a bit? thats my opinion

[hard fossil]

I have heard the canon 55-250efs is sharp for its budget, however I cannot use clip in filters with it? I am not looking to modify any time soon? Do I need filters then?

[fading osprey]

You can use clip ins with any lens as long as it fits your body. Also I’m not super sure how the efs lens performs

I personally don’t like cheaper ef series lenses tho

[twin pawn]

You cannot use clip in filters with ef-s lenses as either the lens element or a plastic flange protrudes into the camera body.

https://www.cloudynights.com/topic/630144-possible-workaround-for-using-clip-filters-with-ef-s-lens/

[twin pawn]

Also the 55-250mm ef-s lens is surprisingly sharp for the price. Here's a guy I follow who used to use the same lens.

[hard fossil]

Thanks for help!
I have the 750d, I believe the 55-250 will be the best suited, as I do want to do some irl photography of like birds.

I see those 58 to m48 rings? I am guessing a filter outside the lens will only sacrifice a little vignette on the outside I can crop out?

[twin pawn]

Np! I believe using the step down rings will be fine for starting out. Vignetting is always aided by taking Flat frames after shooting.

[hard fossil]

Oh yes! Flat frames in clutch.
Also are barn door trackers able to take exposures like 15 seconds at 100mm +

[twin pawn]

That sounds possible, but I'm not 100% confident that it would be reliable. There's some people in this sever that have experience with barn door trackers I believe.

[hard fossil]

I mean it's a DIY thing, I hope it work? Oh well 😂

[twin pawn]

Its worth a try

[twin pawn]

Can't wait to go at M33 again next fall. This is a crooopped version of my latest M33 data from several months ago. NoiseX and proper color calibration made it for this process.

WO Z61 APO (360mm f/5.9)

Modified Canon EOS XSi (unfiltered)

iOptron SkyGuider pro (guided)

[warm venture]

pls tell me how you dont have noise with the xsi

[twin pawn]

Oh I do lmao, NoiseX saves all of my images tbh.

[warm venture]

It’s broken for me

It just removes the noise for the Actual nebula

Not the bg

[twin pawn]

yea it works best when detail is prominent and noise is lightly sprinkled across the image. What values do you use on average?

[warm venture]

Default

When it does work I have a hard time not making everything smooth

[twin pawn]

Rip

[warm venture]

facts

[untold sinew]

lesgo i got my new lens

[hoary cradle]

trying out black eye galaxy, was hoping for more detail. Working with a D5300 and a sw startravel 80/400 on a sw eq 5 pro goto. about 2 hours of data and some shitty flats.

anyone has tips on how to get more colour out of dslr photography? I find galaxy's quite hard to process and edit

[round salmon]

10 minutes of integration time hand tracked. Not bad if I do say do myself.

[paper socket]

Do not use curves to stretch or rgb align when stacking and stretch using arcsinh, it preserves color

[hoary cradle]

Ah ok thanks, I'll look into that!

[paper socket]

2023-04-20 3hr 6min of M3 62 *3min ISO 1600. Unmodded Canon 6D SW 200/800 newton on NEQ-6. Off-axis guiding with asi120mm. I found a smile in it 🙂

[fading osprey]

What is the 2nd pic?

[paper socket]

It is the same picture but zoomed in and cropped. Look top left just at the bounds of the cluster and you will find the smile

[twin pawn]

Ive been using a mixture of histogram stretch and arcsinh, usually do a very light stretch using histo and then stretch the rest using arcsinh. Seems to get rid of discolored star cores, but maybe my images only show that idk. Doing it this way also reduces some of the color noise that arcsinh introduces.

[brazen crystal]

did u get this through a telescope?

[round salmon]

Just the 55-300mm kit lens. I mounted my camera onto my eq mount after taking my telescope off.

[fringe wren]

I hope it’s alright if I post in here, I have a Sony A7R3, and looking for some tutorials or tips on processing images. I am using a Redcat 51, with a AZEQ5 guiding mount and 50mm guide scope. A bit jealous of some of the images I’ve seen in here, and I have a bunch of data but processing has been…not great or easy.

[fading osprey]

Yep it’s fine if you post that stuff here. Processing is very hard at first, and that’s normal. However your setup should be working in your favor, especially with the guidescope since through dithering you can remove virtually all noise in your 3-4+ hr images. But for processing your gonna first find what you want to do it with, whether it be something like pixinsight, siril, photoshop, or one of the the many other options, once you pick one of those out then we should be able to direct you to a tutorial or one of us can help out

[fringe wren]

So, I have all of the applications you just mentioned and been trying them all. I took 10 10 minute exposures last night and maybe that wasn’t enough? I stacked them this morning and just been battling with trying to get a decent looking start in pixinsight. I jumped over to PS but wasn’t happy with the results so really just trying to get a reasonable first step of the process down.

I’m also unsure if I have dithering turned on..I’m using ASIAir+ for everything, I’ll have to look on my next clear night.

[fringe wren]

Ok, first "successful" processing session with Siril.

[fringe wren]

That's M97, and this is the Leo Triplet.

[fading osprey]

Looks good, blacks seem a bit dark but nothing a slight histogram adjustment can’t fix

[fringe wren]

Probably my monitor.. lol

I have 4 monitors, and they are all...pretty different in how they display images.

[fading osprey]

4!?

[fringe wren]

Yeah, my GPU screams every day. LOL

[fading osprey]

You may wanna invest in something that can calibrate your screen for you, I remember seeing ads for one on ig a while back

It was like $20 or smt

[fringe wren]

Ooo, that's a good idea.

[fading osprey]

I don’t think my gpu could ever hand that

[fringe wren]

Well..

My GPU probably SHOULDN'T handle that.

It's just a little 1060

[fading osprey]

Oof that’s definitely not supposed to be handling that lol

[fringe wren]

Pushing video out to a 4k monitor, a 1440p ultra wide, and 2 1080p monitors. lol

Thinking it's still pretty dark.

Wish I could get closer.. lol

Does anyone have any thoughts on the iOptron RC8?

[fading osprey]

No no no not yet deep field (tracked) is a whole different world of difficulty, stick to the redcat until you hit perfection with processing and operation etc…

[fringe wren]

RIP lol

Ugh, well, I guess tonight is my next night to try and get better.

Should I just go for longer exposures?

I was doing 10 minute exposures at 50ISO I think last night.

[fading osprey]

The redcat is a super sharp scope so I’d say if your gonna invest in anything get an autofocuser or an dedicated cam btw

[fading osprey]

I think you could bump up that iso to about 100-200+

Also I’d recommend trying to punch your exposure length of possible

[fringe wren]

I did 5 minute exposures at...160 I think?

Ok

So go longer.

[fading osprey]

The longer the better, just not too long bc calibration frames

And satellites

[fringe wren]

I really want to hit some nebula, but there just aren't any good targets from my locations..

Either shooting through a street lamp, or too low on the horizon until way later.

[fading osprey]

You could just have your mount track it through the ground and have your asiair start shooting when it starts to peak above the horizon

[fringe wren]

Yeah, I've considered it..my issue is, I don't have faith in the people around me.

And the a-hole teenagers that roam my suburb at night..

If it was a dedicated Astro cam, the average person wouldn't know what it is..but my mirrorless is pretty obvious lol

[fringe wren]

Tonight I am attempting Markarians Chain. Really struggling with the mount and ASIAir, I’ll get it all setup and tracking just won’t work.

Tons of restarts, doing PA a dozen times and finally get good numbers

[hard fossil]

How come with 24mp I can only get sub second exposures at 200mm untracked? Is there a way to reduce megapixels on raw pics?

[strange gazelle]

can anybody help me? i have a blackish bar over the top my images and i dont know why

shot at 1/4000

[brazen crystal]

what is ur camera?

[scarlet pike]

may be related to a dirty sensor, but it would not be so uniform.

[strange gazelle]

the sensor seems to be clean but i cant figure out why its like that

[strange gazelle]

im using an eos 2000Da

[fading osprey]

Hmm that happens when I use my redcat51 but not with other lenses

[brazen crystal]

hm idk. look it up ig

[acoustic stream]

👍

[hard fossil]

3 minutes of m51 untracked on eos 750d can canon 55-250 12800 iso
really pissed i got a 24mp aps c now, only able to get 0.6s exposures 😭
what do i do?

[fading osprey]

Not much you can do if your untracked, your limit for star trails not appearing would be around 0.7-0.8 seconds

Ig higher iso and dark frames could help

Maybe try 1600-3200

Or maybe even 6400

[hard fossil]

oh

forgot to say

my iso was like 12800

[fading osprey]

Holy crap

[hard fossil]

yeah

24mp is rubbish

i will prob build a barn door tracker in holidays

i dont feel like using an eq mount

[fading osprey]

Why not?

Barn doors don’t really work for higher focal lengths btw

Unless your just using it to stay on target and not track while shooting

[hard fossil]

well

anything more than 0.6" i need

i dont like how you can justbuy an eq mount and instantly get better results
i want good images from stuggle

[fading osprey]

Well if you get something like a skyguider pro or swsa it’s still a challenge to find your target and polar align

[hard fossil]

i want a diy method basically

[fading osprey]

Then barn door is the way to go but you will be very limited

[hard fossil]

what about if i motories my dobsonian mount

field rotation would become an issue though

[fading osprey]

Yeah probably

[slow moon]

first time using pix
2.5 hours

[untold sinew]

Very nice

[slow moon]

Andromeda pic 1 hour Nikon d5100 55-200mm lens all of these photos use the Nikon d5100 and 55-200mm

Bodes 1 hour

Crab like 55 mins

[paper socket]

ah that looked like the one i did a while ago, my expectations was to high and i told my wife that it looks like a scrap of meat stuck in a dishwasher

[slow moon]

😂 I didn’t have barely any expectations and was insanely surprised of the detail

[strange gazelle]

Looks like the first image i took with my telescope knowing nothing about editing….. and almost 1.5 years later i still don’t know much hahaha

[slow moon]

Haha

[twin pawn]

My Zenithstar 61 APO vs my Nikkor 55-200mm f5.6 kit lens using the same Canon EOS Rebel XSi.

I'm in love with this Lagoon and Trifid data I just collected with the l-eNhance, full image coming soon. Fantastic stuff.

[untold sinew]

Hopefully on Tuesday I will be able to test my setup

[slow moon]

1 hour 45 mins total same equipment from above 1 min exposures

[untold sinew]

Very nice

[ivory stag]

Oh wow, I'm impressed. Tremendous photo of the trifid nebula with the zenithstar, congratulations. I see that the change from lens to telescope is tremendous. I also have a dslr with a 55-300mm, and I'm thinking of buying a telescope, but I didn't imagine that the change would be so big. Do you have other comparison photos? or this photo in full size.

[twin pawn]

Thank you! It really was a huge step up for me.

Here's the full image

[ivory stag]

Beautiful photo! I aspire to achieve that. Can I ask what mount do you have? bortle sky, and total exposure on that photo. I have a SkyWatcher SA2i, in a bortle sky 8 and I also use an l-enhance.

[twin pawn]

I use an iOptron SkyGuider pro (guided) and I image in bortle 5 skies, bortle 8 is rip 😅, but I believe results can be good. My image was a total of 2.5 hours, going to collect more for sure, but the target only comes up at around 2 a.m. for now.

[ivory stag]

Yes, bortle 8 is hell, but I try to do everything possible haha. ​​I'm going to have to aim for +5hrs to get a result like that, at least

[untold sinew]

6 mins integration time. Canon 75-300mm. Canon 60d. Star adventurer.

[untold sinew]

For the price I don’t really think the lens is as bad as people say

Like that was only 6 mins imagine if you can collect hours

[warm venture]

It’s not about the data collection rate it’s about the stars

[untold sinew]

So better seeing?

[warm venture]

No

Like the coma

Edges

[ivory stag]

Yes you are right, if you connect many hours, surely your carina nebula will look great. The more hours you get, the better.
But what Watermelon says is also true. Photographic lenses tend to have stretched stars in the corners, and the vast majority of stars with chromatic aberration (even those in the center). I share my nebula carina, with a gear similar to yours.
This is 2hrs30min more or less, with Nikon D3300, Nikkor 55-300mm and StarAdventurer. The only difference is that I live in a bortle 8, so I used a narrow band filter, L-Enhance (oh, and this one was with a full moon also). In your case, it will look much better!

[hard fossil]

what can i image with 750d untracked 250mm 1.6s exposures?
i have tried m51, obviously needs more data than i can do without killing shutter
basically any bright object in uk spring?

[rustic meteor]

M81/82

Early summer the North American nebula is a good target

I guess you can image it now

[hard fossil]

how come m81? is it bright>

[slow moon]

Guys help! Is canon eos 2000d good start for astrophotography?

[fading osprey]

Yep that will do, most canons are very good for astrophotography, I mean I use a T7 and it works very well and it isn’t even supposed to be a good camera

[slow moon]

Thanks alot, i think u r for the US. Coz, the rebel t7 is the same as 2000d, different names,
T7 is what it called in usa. And rest of world calls it 2000d, what a coincidence lol, thx

[fading osprey]

I thought it was 1500d in the rest of the world, or at least that’s what my asiair says but it could be the 2000d but anyways the T7 or whatever is great lol

Pretty much anything above like 16-18mp will do for a dslr so something like a 2000d would be just fine

[slow moon]

Ok thanks alot, i will get tomorrow, not astro modified yet, i think i will not modify it, the next step is to get an astro cam

[hard fossil]

well

if u plan on doing a lot of untracked then smaller pixel sizes may not be ideal

[twin pawn]

M83 in mono using my Canon T5 and Zenithstar 61 APO. Gotta reprocess the color version.

[noble wasp]

damn. you guys are good at this

[brazen crystal]

no kidding

i suck lol

[pliant viper]

both were with stock dslrs and kit lens

[ivory stag]

Could you provide the acquisition details?

I love your processing, it turned out very well, I love the colors of the stars. All my photos recently are with my narrowband filter it's been a while since I don't took broadband photos and I miss those stars hahaha

[slow moon]

The next step is to get an astro camera like the zwo one,

[quick mantle]

Woah can you tell me all the details what camera, lens, focal length, shutter, tracked? And processing softwares and stacking?

Oh ! And integration time

Its a stunning image

[pliant viper]

bortle 6
stock canon eos 70d
250mm kit lens
both tracked

[pliant viper]

processed in pix
orion had I think 12 hours, pleiades around 6-8 maybe?

[quick mantle]

Tracked?

[pliant viper]

i mean you could always take broadband stars seperately and combine

[pliant viper]

yea

[quick mantle]

Nice

[pliant viper]

30 second subs fkr orion, 20 for pleiades

[quick mantle]

Thats a stunning image you got

[pliant viper]

ty

I got a roki recently :D

im doing polaris ifn project atm

[lethal pollen]

M81 & M82 progress with Canon EOS 50D

First one is untracked 85mm lens, ones below are taken through NexStar 102SLT

[quick mantle]

woah the first one is at 85mm cool

[hoary cradle]

I'm using a D5300, what settings do you guys use in DSS? When I try 2x drizzle my stacked image turns out completely black and don't get a lot of colour in there.

[hoary cradle]

Taken with a SW ST 80/400 and a D5300. 40 mins of data. I need a better scope

[noble dagger]

My longest exposure I’ve ever taken (2.5 hours) shot with a Canon EOS 7D Mark ii

[winged jungle]

hello

I have a nikon D5600

and i want to do Milkyway shots

Can someone teach me how to adjust settings and all that stuff

or just find me a simple tutorial?

[fading osprey]

You got the supernova!

Nice for 40 minutes

[hoary cradle]

Oh wow I haven't read about that yet. Thanks for noticing. That's really cool!

[hoary cradle]

What kind of lens and setup do you have? There are lots of easy tutorials on yt. Try to find something about stacking to if you didn't already. Exposure time and iso depends on what lens you have as well.

[winged jungle]

I got the kit lens

[hoary cradle]

How many mm is that?

[winged jungle]

lemme check

its 50mm
1:1.8G

[hoary cradle]

Alright that should work. As an easy rule you can stick to the rule of 500 for now. So that's 500 devided by 50 for the exposure time before you get star trailing. I'd recommend sticking to about 7/8 seconds shutter time and for iso you just have to try or read about it I guess. Keep in mind that focus is really important as well

[winged jungle]

yes sirr

and yt tutorials

im goin to b4 this thursday so i dont want to blow my chances

[hoary cradle]

Ah that's nice! Never had the chance to get to a B4 or less

Well good luck and looking forward to the results:)

[winged jungle]

Ty

My first time going so yh i've never been anywhere lower than b7

Thanks again ill share the results asap

[fading osprey]

Yeah it’s less than 24hrs old I think

[winged jungle]

@hoary cradle i took the camera out rightnow for a try out in b7 and its not working the memory cards not working either thankgod i checked it here

[rustic meteor]

Single 120 second sub of the North American nebula.
WO Z61
Rebel t2i Astro modified

[untold sinew]

im back but with some more images

[rustic meteor]

Little under 4 hours

[untold sinew]

Looks amazing

[lethal pollen]

1h11m M104 in Bortle 9 - Canon EOS 50D + nexstar 102slt f/6.6 achromat

[twin pawn]

These are most of the galaxies I've been able to capture so far. It always amazes me how much I can capture with a small 60mm refractor.

One of the most incredible things about galaxies is how much hidden objects are right around them, from the oxygen arc around Andromeda, to the tidal streams of m51. Stuff I haven't even come close to capturing, yet what I can capture is already jaw-dropping.

[peak lake]

Bit scared to post it here with all amazing shots; this is my first real stacked image of the North america nebula region.. xD

900 lights and calibration frames..
Untracked with a 70d canon and 135mm rokinon at F2.8 1.6 second sub. on a bortle 8 to 9 sky..

Processed with trial pixinsight and gimp.

[twin pawn]

Dam, for bortle 8/9 and untracked that's not bad. Better than what I was producing untracked.

And I was in bortle 5

[royal shadow]

How are you all doing? I am still quite new to this and am trying to learn, so thanks for your patience lol. I was doing some shots on Rho Ophiuchi with a 55mm lens, got about 160x90s exposures at ISO 400. I did calibration with flats darks and bias, that I know I did them properly but I could be wrong about that. I do live in a city with a pretty high bortle rating, so that could be the cause of it. But I am just really not happy with how it is turning out, there seems to be a distinct lack of detail. I have included a link with my stacked image as well as the processed image (to the best of my current abilities) do you have any input? Thanks https://drive.google.com/file/d/1HYBm80pCMOi0kkRObbGd1qhna1Iejvwa/view?usp=sharing

[twin pawn]

I may be able to take look at it in a while. What type of lens exactly were you using?

[royal shadow]

Its the canon 18-55mm f3.5

[twin pawn]

Yea when at 55mm the aperture closes to f5.6, which doesn't let much light it for such a small lens. The less light comes in the less detail will be visible above the noise floor. You could try zooming out a bit until the camera reads f4, that'll let in a bit more light.

This may not uncover more detail but you'll get a bit cleaner image.

[royal shadow]

Cool, thanks!

[thin stream]

Stock cam and no filters. Around 4h with f/2.8 and moon+no astrodark. I mean what did I expect for bortle 5 and the circumstances

this is pretty interseting in my opinion. On the left is the 4h image and on the right onöy 2h. There is not more nebula visible but it became a lot more clear and sharp. This is a good example for how important exposure time can be

[lethal pollen]

M97 Owl nebula and M108 - EOS 50D w/ 102mm f/6 achromat

1h00m of integration in B9

[scarlet pike]

Wow man

1 hour in a bortle nine?

Holy great job

And the scope is a achromat

[twin pawn]

Found the radial blur tool in Photoshop and decided to mess around. I like this subtle look of "hyperspeed" trials.

The image I used -

[rustic meteor]

Single 120s sub of the iris nebula b8

[twin pawn]

Tbf my Iris 120s subs from B5 didn't look much better.

What cam are you using?

[rustic meteor]

rebel t2i

its also a 75% moon right now so that doesnt help

[twin pawn]

Oh dam, yea that sounds like a struggle.

My Rebel XSi was contributing a little too much noise

[rustic meteor]

I imaged last year with 60 second subs (about 4 hours).

[twin pawn]

Daaam, with the z61 I assume?

[rustic meteor]

yep. I could probably do a better process now but that data was treacherous to work with

[twin pawn]

Bro for 4hrs thats hella good, love the colors and process in general.

[rustic meteor]

thanks. I remember being so happy at the time. But as with most things for me, I don't like settling for good.

[twin pawn]

I love the subtle brown tint in your dust, looks way more natural.

[rustic meteor]

yeah getting the the brownish tint to pop out was hard. But I do like your stars much more. Mine looked very fuzzy

[twin pawn]

This was 4.7 hrs with my Z61, B5 no moon.

[twin pawn]

Did you use GHS when processing?

[rustic meteor]

No. I didnt start using GHS till a couple weeks ago. I proceed this image last year.

I think I was still just using levels and curves in photoshop at the time

[twin pawn]

Hmm, I know when I used GHS too much it tends to bloat the stars more on my z61 as compared to histo stretch.

[twin pawn]

Even better for an all Photoshop process

[rustic meteor]

well apparently I was wrong. I found my old folders and it was named 9.5 hours iris.

[twin pawn]

Oh lmaoo

I mean, still, for B8 skies it's still impressive

[rustic meteor]

I think Im gonna image it only when Im under darker skies and Integration should add up over time. I can't expose longer without everything being washed out.

I guess ill try again during new moon

[twin pawn]

For sure

[acoustic stream]

quick question does the canon t1i can work with a Intervalometer

[twin pawn]

It certainly should

[acoustic stream]

alright cause i know nothing much about my cam i kinda just blindly use it

[wooden oracle]

Stock Nikon d5300

[hoary cradle]

What lens or scope?

[wooden oracle]

First image is Sigma 35 f/1.5, second image is 61 EDPH, third image (NGC7000) is Samyang 135 f/2 lens, which I'm also selling

[hoary cradle]

Thank you for sharing, great images! How many hours on data is this? Any luck on selling?

[olive girder]

why monochrome ?

[wooden oracle]

I don’t know exactly, but IFN and the second are both around 13-14hrs, the north america is 4-5hrs

And no I haven’t had luck selling it yet

[twin pawn]

Just to showcase the structure and shape. Plus I really hated the colors on some of those, there in for a reprocess.

[pliant viper]

ignore stacking artifacts and the fact that it looks dull atm

stock dslr, rokinson 135

only 40 mins of data (i'm gonna get at least 2 hours) in b6

[hoary cradle]

Ah great dedication. I also have a D5300, but no good lenses at all. Working with a sw st 80/400. Yesterday tried M57 as I was waiting for the crescent nebula to rise over the houses next to me

Got about 2 hours on crescent now. Still waiting on dss

[hoary cradle]

A really shitty, extremely stretched ngc6888. Wanted to see if there was anything at all but not much is showing up. Trying a better edit this afternoon

[winged edge]

you can definitelly just get a small newt for a small mount and still get results maybe even better than top tier fracs (ofc if you dont mind the deffraction spikes)

sorry about the reply this late, hadn't checked out this forum in quite a while

[royal shadow]

Have you tried using starnet++?

If you can separate the stars you might be able to reduce them slightly, it will make it easier to see your target

[hoary cradle]

No didn't take the time for it yet. But that's a good idea ty. I did take the time tonight to shoot another 3 hours of data so I'm very sad to go to work now

[royal shadow]

Haha yeah I know the feeling, let me know how it turns out!

[hoary cradle]

well at least there is something in there, just a basic stretch on the data and made it starless. only used the wrong reference frame so im stacking again right now haha

don't know if the cloudy bits are just shitty flats or worth keeping haha

[royal shadow]

Personally I wouldn’t worry about it, most of it is either artifacts leftover from the stars or extra nebulosity that just wasn’t that noticeable before

[hoary cradle]

nah you're right:) using a scope I bought second hand for 40 Euro so artifacts are expected. just a quick edit. looking a lot better than the chaos I send before

[royal shadow]

Yeah that looks a hell of a lot better, what are you using for your editing? I know there are some ways in photoshop that you can shrink the stars without causing some of that artifacting

[candid walrus]

Heres a good handful of images from my Nikon D3500 fuil spectrum modified unfiltered (: Scope is a Celestron C8 w SE paintjob

[hoary cradle]

Haha yes as soon as I uploaded I saw the weird looking stars, just imagine they are all black holes and it's amazing. Using GIMP and Siril for some colour calibration, background extraction etc. Just requested a trial for pixinsight!

[royal shadow]

Great! I could be wrong cause it has been a bit since I have used gimp but you should be able to selectively grab a colour from the stars which will select all the stars, then you will want to make sure that you feather it a lot to reduce the artifacting. Then you should be able to shrink them

What telescope and mount are you using

[hoary cradle]

A second hand Sky watcher ac 80/400 and a Sky watcher eq-5 pro.

[hoary cradle]

Yes you can select it by colour and then LHC lightness I guess, didn't know about the feathering but I'll give it a try this week. Thanks for the tips!

I'm looking for other scopes though!

[twin pawn]

Messed with the HDR function on Snapseed editor, and tbh it surprised me. It looked surprisingly clean and natural.

[pliant viper]

its quite a bit cooked though lol

[untold sinew]

Cooked is better than raw

[twin pawn]

That's valid for sure, I don't care for HDR looks on my images. Looses the dynamic depth that makes space images so immersive, unless done lightly and carefully in certain cases. For people who do like the HDR affect, I thought id showcase snapseed's very easy to use HDR function.

Flat may be a better word

[kind karma]

if i can use raw for image quality should? i do that

[twin pawn]

RAW is best, gives you the most information in the image to process it.

[kind karma]

kk ty

[twin pawn]

np

[twin pawn]

Made the dust a little more rich than what I posted in #deep_space_pics , I would love to get another 5 hours on this target.

[rustic meteor]

Did you use a focal reducer?

[twin pawn]

No I believe I used the Flat 61 at 1x mag

Also, I see now that the dark areas have an unnatural color and transition to midtones.

If theres too much glare on my phone screen, dark areas don't render properly to my eyes.

[twin pawn]

Here's one without the horrible compression

[twin pawn]

A little screen shot of a live stack on M16 tonight using my Z61 and 450Da

[twin pawn]

2 hr live stack

[rustic meteor]

Single 120 second sub through significant amount of smoke.

[slow moon]

Which app is this please? Thx

[candid walrus]

Clear Outside

[iron ledge]

Do you need a specific cable to connect a canon dslr to an asiair because i tried connecting my 2000d with a generic cable but it wasnt detected and canon sell an "interface cable" (https://store.canon.ie/canon-ifc-400pcu-interface-cable/9370A001/)

[rustic meteor]

which asiair do you have?

[iron ledge]

Mini

I saw some posts on zwos forum and cloudy nights talking about the 2000d and the asiair not working together but it seems that compatability was added about a year ago

[rustic meteor]

alright so I first made sure it was capabale (which it is). Maybe try another cable incase this one was broken? Ive been using a mini USB- b cable just fine with my rbel t2i

[iron ledge]

When i ordered the cable i actually had to get 3 because that was the minimum amount but none of them worked. Im not sure if its a coincidence or the cable just cant transfer data or something similar

And there are quite a few 1* reviews saying it was doa

[rustic meteor]

looks like newer version of the software aren't compatible with the 2000d. I have only done minimal research though. Ill look into it more whenever I have time.

which is stupid cause it says it is on their website

[iron ledge]

Very misleading

[iron ledge]

Yeah I saw that

[rustic meteor]

but then they also say it is? very weird

[iron ledge]

Well thats what like 9 months later

So maybe it is supported?

But it doesn't seem to be

Not sure what to do tbh

I have contacted zwo support but they seem to work mon-fri

[rustic meteor]

yeah, its a very shitty situation.

[iron ledge]

So ill have to wait and see

[rustic meteor]

maybe someone who is good with the tech stuff can help you out

[iron ledge]

Hopefully

Anyways thanks for your help

[rustic meteor]

np

[iron ledge]

Just got back from the store with a different cable and it still doesnt work

Think I've narrowed it down to a dodgy port on the camera or that its just not compatible

Scratch all of what I have sayed i figured it out thanks to a video on youtube. In the cameras settings if you have wifi enabled the usb port is disabled so the cable was never the problem nor was compatibility with the asiair.

[twin pawn]

Close up of the Eagle.

[slow moon]

results from my new skywatcher 72ed and a nikon d5200 DSLR + Ioptron Skyguider Pro. M81 was taken with a D5300. NGC7000: about 6 hours worth of data, M81: 2.5 hours. Stacked with DSS, edited with SIril, NGC7000 was denoised with astrodenoisepy, the rest of final touches were done with gimp.

no flattener yet

[acoustic stream]

I can see why my pic are blurred

[strange gazelle]

am I too near or to far from the sensor?

[loud sky]

your too close, but not by that much 🙂

[strange gazelle]

ugh im trying since forever to get it right hahah

thanks for the help

[candid walrus]

What scope do you use?

[strange gazelle]

im using a TS optics photoline 80 Ed F6 with an x 0.8 recuder paired with an EOS 2000Da

looks good though haha

[loud sky]

Nice, I got almost the same setup just the 72 mm one

[strange gazelle]

nice nice 🙂

[candid walrus]

Usually the backspacing is 55mm so if you haven’t got that I’d give it a try, if need be try further or closer if it’s too far

[strange gazelle]

It was 55mm but it didn't check out im guessing it's about 56-57mm

[hoary cradle]

Lunar allowed? First light on my 130pds. Single exposure. More into DSO, but the clouds working against me and couldn't wait trying it out

[rustic meteor]

Clouds made the image so much better imo

[twin pawn]

Clouds are dope

Wispy crispy

[acoustic stream]

kinda give the star war death star vibe

[slow moon]

old Carina pic I took

Untracked + Stock lens

[chrome harbor]

that's the mirror. it doesn't effect image quality, its only for the view finder

[hoary cradle]

Finally a clear night to try out my 130pds. A real quick edit in Siril and Gimp. Tough the colours seems pretty much off when I compare with other (mostly professional shots). Maybe because it is only about 1.5/2 hour of integration time. It's a stock Nikon D5300, anyone have an idea or other tips on editing?

[lethal pollen]

Finally M101 is low enough in the sky for my NexStar mount so now I can take images of the supernova. I’m using a NexStar 102SLT f6.6 achromat with unmodded canon EOS 50D. 1h15m exposure in B9

[candid walrus]

2 best shots with the Quattro so far! Nikon D3500 full spectrum, Andromeda unfiltered, Veil, UV/IR cut filter

[hoary cradle]

What kind of integration time on those? And did you do the full spectrum mod yourself? Looking great!

[candid walrus]

Thanks! It was 53 minutes on andromeda (at F4) and 2h 30m on veil (at F3.45) the mod was done myself but It has caused some tilt, not much but it’s there

[twin pawn]

Goin for the juicy dust in Sagittarius with the stock T5

Ha showing up nicely tbh

[normal magnet]

Niiice

[twin pawn]

I'm tryna stick to planned astro sessions to eliminate a bit of time wasted, and I need to choose a target for the next clear night. If that clear night, as I suspect, falls on a moon night than I'm choosing between Ptolemy's cluster and the Coathanger cluster.

If new moon night, than it's between Rho Ophiuchi and well... Drop some not well imaged targets that are achievable in B5 skies. Especially emission/reflection/dark nebulae.

[fading osprey]

I’d say do rho for your new moon night, there’s lots going on there and many different angles that you can use to compose a unique shot, it’s also easy to find and time is always of the essence, especially in summertime

[twin pawn]

Tbh this is what I need , I would love to grab some obscure and uncommon targets but I know rn with my SkyGuider I'll waste an hour just trying to find the dam thing even with platesolving.

[twin pawn]

Night two of m8 and m20

[noble dagger]

So much noise 😭😭😭

[lethal pollen]

M3 Globular with NexStar 102SLT and canon 50D - 45 minutes in B9

[fading osprey]

Just bought a XSI from eBay to astromod

[twin pawn]

Yessiirr

Did you swing a deal?

[fading osprey]

Yeah, only $45. It would have been $35 without shipping, but the photos show it's working and its distributed by a legit seller so i'm hopeful.

still one heck of a deal even if it's broken, but all I know is that it's missing the battery door

[twin pawn]

dayum, snagged mine for 50

[fading osprey]

nicee

[twin pawn]

45 is good af

[fading osprey]

yeah really

I'm not so afraid to break it anymore lol

[twin pawn]

I wish i took more care in putting the sensor back because tilt is bad

[fading osprey]

how should I prevent that? just kinda try and screw in all of the screws an equal amount?

[twin pawn]

but hey, cooled osc from player one with tilt adapter will fic all of that. It's time I get the full potential of my z61 lol.

[twin pawn]

Yea try not to put any extra pressure than whats necessary, in general.

hopefully itll be minimal, idk if its avoidable just due to how small of a movement it needs for tilt to show up.

[fading osprey]

yeah hopefully it wont be too bad

[exotic bane]

24mm F5.6 7s 6400 ISO
Canon R6 modified
untracked
stack of 64, 10m total integration.
In the mountain, 21.60 mag/arcsec2 (B3ish I guess ?)

[twin pawn]

A little wild reprocess on my heart data

[loud sky]

can you send a link to the stack I could give it a try 🙂 (google drive)

[fading osprey]

So i've gotten my XSI, i'm not gonna astromod it just yet but when I do what should I do? I'm planning on shooting a few photos with it modded then selling and switching to a higher MP modified dslr to keep. I don't know what would appeal to people more though, a full spectrum mod with everything taken out but with star bloat that you need a UV/IR cut filter to fix (I feel kind of bad for the buyer though as they would have to buy one themselves)? Or just a plain old HA mod, which is just taking out the lfp2 filter I believe, but I'm not exactly sure. I don't know which would be more appealing to you guys if your point of view was a buyer.

[twin pawn]

Considering people looking for such a DSLR likely want simplicity as their starting out, I'd just do the Ha mod (like mine). Don't see any reason in going full spectrum unless someone wants to do infrared photography using a IR pass filter.

[fading osprey]

Sounds good, thanks for the help! So in the HA mod you just poke the lfp2 filter out of its bracket, then leave the lfp1 in its existing bracket that’s kinda attached to the lfp2 bracket, correct?

[tepid root]

stock dslr struggle

[whole hemlock]

Guys anyone use the Pentax K20D, if so what are the best settings for night sky photos?

[twin pawn]

Try around iso 1600 - if untracked use 1s to 15s exposures depending on what lens your using (look up 500 rule for untracked astro gives proper exposure times for you specific lens focal length) - also turn the k20d's built in noise reduction off - and shoot in RAW file format.

Seems like it has a built in intervelometer so you can possibly use that to take sequences of long sub exposures

[twin pawn]

Sounds right. https://youtu.be/-IIN0-q2WLY you may have already seen this, but this is the tutorial I used andany others used. Gary Honis is widely know for his excellent mods and tutorials.

[fading osprey]

Crap

I hope that cut wasn’t too deep

Idk how a toothpick did that much damage

Anyways it’s almost full torn down

[bleak rain]

I tried 💀

[twin pawn]

Niccce, yes that doesn't look too bad

Shouldn't have damaged anything 😬

[fading osprey]

Yeah I’m just praying I didn’t

[candid walrus]

Dont stress it too much, pretty sure i literally broke a wire when doing it, still works though lol

[fading osprey]

Alright then

[fading osprey]

Sensor assembly is all back together

[fading osprey]

All done I need a battery tho lol

There was also a clip that for some reason wouldn’t snap shut so i had to tape it shut with electrical tape so hopefully that holds

[fading osprey]

I tore it down again to fix that cable lol

I fixed it, I’m not super confident about it but it at least snapped shut

[rustic meteor]

First time stacking and processing a milkyway image.

• rebel t3 (unmodded)
• 17x20s
• iso 1600
• 18mm f/3.5
• b1-2

[fading osprey]

Camera mod didn’t work :/

It won’t turn on so I’m gonna take it apart and re secure all the connections

But the shutter doesn’t go up and down like my other canon dslr does when it turns on, so I don’t think the issue is the scratch in the display cable

[rustic meteor]

sucks to hear. Hopefully it was just something unplugged

[fading osprey]

Yep I can only hope

[exotic bane]

Canon R6 modified
Sigma 135 F2 at F2.0 (hence bad stars)
Sky watcher star adventurer

Best SQM of the night : 21.35 mag/arcsec2

544x30s, 4h32m total

[fading osprey]

Alright, I opened it up and it seems the display cables little clamp had come up, so I just gotta flick that down, double check connections, and hopefully it’ll work

[fading osprey]

Still didn’t work

[fading osprey]

Never mind I disassembled and re assembled again and now it works

[twin pawn]

Ohh noicce

That's a relief

Also for when you start shooting with it - I've been able to pull 420" subs without noise overriding signal at around 70° F and 300" subs at 80° F without any issues. The best iso from what I've researched is ISO 1600, provides best dynamic range and noise performance.

[fading osprey]

Wow, I wonder if i'll be able to get my mount guiding that precise, anyways thanks for all your help!

doggos in HaRGB

[twin pawn]

Your running the SGP or Star advent

[fading osprey]

yeah just the SGP, ASIAIR and a rc51, no guidescope tho just raw tracking

[twin pawn]

Ahh I see

Yea guiding will enable some fantastic data collection with the added ability to do 5 min and above

[fading osprey]

Yeah i'm hoping to get guiding later this year if i make or get enough money to do so.

[rustic meteor]

[fading osprey]

First light (It also has no tilt and I have no idea why lol)

That was 2:20 from b4

[hoary cradle]

Yesterday's results. Only had a 3 hour window and since I got my scope I didn't have time to properly shoot with it. Andromeda needs more editing but eastern veil came out nice.

[hoary cradle]

Oh I'm sorry mate totally forgot about this. Maybe this afternoon I'll send you a link!

[hoary cradle]

Bit better already, only annoyed by the omelette in the middle

[bleak rain]

Any good dslr settings for dso?

[fading osprey]

Between 1600 and 800 iso is normally good for untracked, widest aperture you can but if the stars look a bit off take it down a few stops. Then for shutter speed I recommend using this guide: https://astrobackyard.com/the-500-rule/ for calculating it (assuming you are untracked). Good luck!

[bleak rain]

Alright thanks

[fading osprey]

Lmao I found another one at a thrift store today for $25, the up and down buttons “sometimes work” but I’m sure it’s a connection issue

[twin pawn]

Kiss x2 dam

Oh bru

I thought it was older than the XSi for a min

But that's the Japanese naming??

Maybe idk

[fading osprey]

Yeah probably is, but it’s the same as the xsi and 450d lol

Idk why canon can’t just keep their naming consistent

[twin pawn]

Yea it's the same, I think they have diff names for euro and Japanese models

I seriously don't know why tho

[fading osprey]

The only difference I can spot is the nameplate and a weird dent right below the flash

[twin pawn]

Mmm

Here's an idea

A monochrome conversion?

[fading osprey]

Nah I’ll probably do that way later

This one is actually in better condition than the $45 one so I’m probably gonna convert it and end up selling it, then keeping the other one since idc about the condition and it has no tilt

[twin pawn]

Good idea tbh, good luck!

[fading osprey]

Thanks!

[fading osprey]

Alright finished modding the new dslr, I don’t think it has much if any tilt either

[twin pawn]

Finally switched out my old Orion SSAG CCD for a QHY 5L-II-M

[frail briar]

I'm planning on doing that to a poor xs

I've done it to a IMX179 before so shouldnt be much diffrent

[twin pawn]

Noice, good luck

[amber girder]

first time photographing andromeda

a6000 (no mods)
70mm lens
400 - 5s

[round salmon]

first time on lagoon and trifid @200mm f5.3 stock nikon d3300 72.5 min of data

[honest sigil]

Shots from my Nikon Z5 (& 70-300mm lens), untracked

[lethal pollen]

NGC 6888 - canon 50d and Quattro 150p, B9 skies

115 min exposure, no calibration frames as I couldn’t find a way to combine my master flats/darks/bias with my light frame

[lofty tinsel]

Hi guys! Here my work on North America Nebula taken with Samyang 135mm f2 and my Sony a6000 original from inner city 75% moon, what you think? Is about 4,2 hours 20 second at iso 400, f2.8 stacked with only dark frame in dss and post process in Siril please give me some feedback i’m new in this world 😁✌️ ciao from Italy!

[fading osprey]

That looks really good! Especially for in the city and with the moon out. I feel like it’s got a bunch of color noise, so you may want to reduce that in Lightroom or photo raw, The colors also seem a bit orange/yellowish to me, especially in the upper part of the nebula. Otherwise it looks great! Is it done untracked?

[lofty tinsel]

Thanks!! 😁 is tracked with skywatcher star adventurer gti! I have tried to process it only in Siril doing the stretch after removing the stars, I’m looking for a good program like photoshop but free, yes I have a lot of noise I hope to reduce it adding flat and bias

Here it’s 2hr same location but little bit different post process, I’m looking for a good workflow in Siril

[fading osprey]

Btw you only reduce noise by either doing it in post or taking darks, flats are meant to reduce vignette and dust that’s on your sensor

[lethal pollen]

1h 20m on C33 Veil Nebula with Quattro 150p and EOS50D unmodded, no filter Bortle 9

[loud sky]

no worries I forgot it my self 😅

[hoary cradle]

Wonder where the reds went? I shot this yesterday with the d5300 and a 130 pds

It's 3 hours tough

[hoary cradle]

Try GIMP. Lots of tutorials online and free!

[lethal pollen]

Is your DSLR modded?

Mine is unmodded and it seems to like the Oii spectrum quite a lot

Also your background is amazing, how do you get rid of all the stars?

[hoary cradle]

No mods on my dslr.. that's why I expected yours to have more red as well

[hoary cradle]

Thanks, in the full size image it has a lot of hot pixels (I think) when zoomed in though. I stretched the image first. Flattened it. Took it into starnet ++. Then took the original tif again and stretched it a bit to use it as a background. Did some final adjustments on the starless picture and put it on the dimmer background:)

[lethal pollen]

I’ll definitely try use starnet on my image. In regards to the lack of Ha, idk what is causing it, I’m in a Bortle 9 which could cause this, however at the same time the oiii emissions are very visible which is weird

[twin pawn]

The amount of Ha showing up in that image looks about right. Unmodified DSLRs are def more sensitive to OIII than Ha.

Once you mod it, the OIII gets drowned out a lot of times. Although in the Veil nebula it still shows up quite well.

[hoary cradle]

Do you think the d5300 is that more sensitive to Ha then?

[twin pawn]

compared to?

other stock dslrs?

[hoary cradle]

The eos50d @lethal pollen is using. And other stock in general yes. With the same integration time I see a lot more Ha coming up

[twin pawn]

Yea Nikon dslrs, especially the 5300, are less noisy than canon, especially the 50d which is quite old I believe. It will pick up signal more efficiently, light from gasses and dust in space will show up marginally better and stronger.

[lethal pollen]

Yeah my 50D is like 15 years old

[twin pawn]

yea about the same as my 450D

[hoary cradle]

Ah well that explains a lot then

[lethal pollen]

I ran starnet on it, a tiny bit more Ha visible but its still drowned out by the oiii and filter

[hoary cradle]

Ah yes but looks a lot better already though. Saturated the red already too?

In Oiii it looks cool too!

[lethal pollen]

There, a bit more ha visible

Ill try a few more cosmetic changes

[lethal pollen]

Yeah this is my red channel compared to blue

[vapid goblet]

maybe ill try to shoot veil with my 130pds and d3100, but its not a good sensor

[vapid goblet]

damn ok if you got this from bortle 9 I think I can get something similar from bortle 7 unmodded d3100

i thought veil was dimmer

[lethal pollen]

It’s not too bad, I can just about see the bright parts of it in 30s subs. I don’t use any filters

Starless

However idk how to control the noise in the background

[vapid goblet]

ooo i gotta try

thats really good

[lethal pollen]

Thanks, i feel like its a bit overprocessed but it does reveal all the nebulosity well

[vapid goblet]

my scope is f/5 so slightly slower than the quattro

thanks, definitely gotta shoot veil now

[vapid goblet]

I get a perfect clear night tonight

[hoary cradle]

@vapid goblet this is with a 130pds as well

[vapid goblet]

oo nice

though that camera is way better than mine

no coma corrector?

[hoary cradle]

Idk a lot about the sensors

[hoary cradle]

Yes the baadr mkIII

[vapid goblet]

ah

looks like you got some kind of tilt

in the corners, light coma

[hoary cradle]

Yeah probably. Just started using it. Any tips on getting rid of it?

[vapid goblet]

its probably from the thumb screws in the focuser

try slowly tightening them both equally

will help

ideally you can get a compression ring adapter to replace the thumb screws and that shouldnt have tilt

I recently bought a baader mk3 for $85 on cloudy nights, just waiting for it to ship.

[hoary cradle]

Ah ok thanks, good idea

[hoary cradle]

Haven't used it without the baadr so don't know how much it helps haha

Looking forward to your results on veil!

[vapid goblet]

heres the difference, one of my raw subs uncropped without the corrector

will see the difference when I get the corrector

[hoary cradle]

I'll share a starless image on veil tomorrow too

[hoary cradle]

That's a bit more coma than my subs as far I can see

[hoary cradle]

What software are you using?

[lethal pollen]

Siril

[vapid goblet]

my fov

without the coma corrector that'll be tough

[hoary cradle]

Oh ok, I use gimp. Working with layer masks you can easily get rid of the noise in the background

[lethal pollen]

Yeah, siril doesnt have easy control of layers i think

[hoary cradle]

I mean I use gimp after I did some bg extraction and stuff like that

[hoary cradle]

No don't think so

[lethal pollen]

Ill try use gimp

[hoary cradle]

Yes just watch some tutorials. Lot of possibilities in there

[vapid goblet]

can you share the data?

[hoary cradle]

Ah yes about the same right

[vapid goblet]

fov? baader doesnt change the fov yeah

[lethal pollen]

Sure, ill send it in a sec

[hoary cradle]

Ah yeah I mean about the same fov for me with the 5300

[vapid goblet]

yeah probably similar

[lethal pollen]

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/19htOlid3FvWzfwVB4Uy7HseXavPgUX_E?usp=sharing

VeilFullData includes all the data taken on the night (like 110 min) but its not the best because I didnt remove bad subs

The other file is 2x drizzle on good data, however its only like 80 min

Sorry for the crazy gradients and background, I used flats but light pollution is rough here

[vapid goblet]

@lethal pollen bit cursed process but here ya go

[lethal pollen]

Oh wow, that is so good. Much better then my process, what software did you use for it?

[vapid goblet]

Pixinsight

[vapid goblet]

Thats all, no blurx or noisex or anything

[twin pawn]

These colors are somehow mesmerizing... I can't explain it. I like it.

[hoary cradle]

Woah great job on that looks great!! Pixinsight is so powerful

Can I send a .tif maybe too? Curious if there is more hiding in the data I have

[full vortex]

an opinion on what's wrong with my pic please? (I'm colorblind so doesn't help; around 30x30s stacked with a stock 700D)

[vapid goblet]

Sure, I'll get around to processing it when I can

[inland cypress]

stock m4/3, 3hs, f4, b5 (16 mins from b2 also integrated)

mostly 15s subs, some 20s

really random dataset lol

i combined them according to snr so its optimal

[inland cypress]

boosted red highlights a little

[twin pawn]

120" sub at iso 1600

Canon 450D at 85° F

Bortle 5 waning crescent.

[fleet latch]

30 sec subs with a Canon T3. First real test of the AVX i just bought. Mizar and Alcor 🙂

[fading osprey]

Dude you gotta clean your sensor

[vapid goblet]

got some sensor in your dust

[lethal pollen]

M27 - 82 min Canon 50D

[twin pawn]

The auto clean is basically just shaking the sensor, but it's rarely enough motion to get any kind of dust particles off.

[lethal pollen]

Reprocessed - more detail in the nebula, I also prefer stars over starless for this object

[twin pawn]

Back on the Cocoon.

Crop from a single 120" sub at iso 1600

[round salmon]

90mins of 30” exposures on a stock Nikon D3300

[craggy lark]

Guys I need help

When I try to achieve focus pointing at a star, the star won't appear on liveview so I can't be sure if I'm on focus or not.

[round salmon]

Is it a zoom lens?

If it is go to the lowest focal length (zoom) and adjust your focus to try find a bright star in the frame, then keep zooming in and adjusting

[craggy lark]

It is. Thanks I'll try that

[inland cypress]

also make sure u are roughly in focus before u zoom in, so u can actually tell theres a star

[haughty galleon]

13 min orion no calibration frames 2022 vs 2023 same pic

[slow moon]

9 mins untracked, bortle 5

[lethal pollen]

NGC 6939 and 6946 - 1h43m Canon EOS 50D

The galaxy NGC 6946 is heavily obscured by dust from our galactic plane making it more difficult to observe, and its worse for me, I have to contend with bortle 9 LP

Cant resolve any Ha at all at this exposure time due to my camera's insensitivity to it

[rustic meteor]

Starfest 2023

Rebel t3
18-55mm kit lens @ 18mm
18 x 20s @ f3.5 (sky)
1 x 110s @ f3.5 (ground)
ISO 3200

Took these widefield images because it allowed me to enjoy the night sky while still taking some low effort images

[nimble laurel]

Anyone have any tips on keeping your dslr sensor temperature cooler? I shoot at 180s with 20s delay and my background is hella noisy sensor temp is like 15°C+ above ambient temperature

[twin pawn]

I've seen people build peltier coolers for their DSLR, but it's is quite in depth and requires removing the back of the DSLR, unless you have a vari angle LCD / articulating LCD.

[nimble laurel]

That’s something to look into, I’m going to be upgrading to a dedicated astronomy camera with cooling soon so I’m not sure how much longer I’ll be using my t3i and if it’s worth doing if I’m gunna sell right after. Summer nights in Canada don’t help very much lol I’m waiting for those -20 nights in the winter. Maybe I’ll increase the delay between subs to see if it helps

[nimble laurel]

I’ve never done Astrophotography in the winter, I’m still pretty new but I’d guess my sensor would prob be around -10 degrees in the winter.

[twin pawn]

Winter is optimal for DSLRs lol, the diff in noise on my XSi between summer and winter is wild.

[candid walrus]

Yeah its unbelieveable, alot less hot pixels too, really makes the difference

[twin pawn]

Also I can take darks in my fridge soo...

Everything works out

[candid walrus]

Damn the fridge?

[twin pawn]

Indeed

[candid walrus]

If it works it works i guess XD

[twin pawn]

Yea we get short nights but fortunately we still have astro dark

Winter I get around to 8 hours of dark but summer it's around 6

Mmm, yea id hate to deal with that

Batteries do performer worse in cold, so id get a dummy battery that you plug into USB power or 12v power.

Yea the dummy batt is good

20000 is def a lot, with a DSLR that'd likely last the whole night no problem. Don't quote me on that tho.

[vapid goblet]

that will definitely handle a dslr for the whole night

my dslr's battery is 1030mah and it lasts 1-2 hours of astro depending on temperature

[tepid root]

Reprocess soon this is stock dslr capture

[round salmon]

When you haven’t modified the camera by taking out the internal filter or replacing it to give you greater ha sensitivity

Most dslr’s (basically all) have filters that block large amounts of ha light

[pliant viper]

feedback wanted

stock dslr in a b6 with roki

[twin pawn]

Holy

thats insane

[exotic bane]

Great, fake spikes ?

[pliant viper]

I put wires in front of my lens

[twin pawn]

yea I remember doing that when I was untracked

if your able to 3d print a diff spike mask, you can get even better results

[earnest pier]

Sooo beautiful man. I love it. 9.6/10

[pliant viper]

thanks!

[twin pawn]

Crop of my Cocoon data

[dense yew]

how did you take that untracked?

[twin pawn]

Bortle 1 I believe?

[next kernel]

idk apparently i get really good SNR for untracked photos

[dense yew]

How many photos did you take and what settings

[next kernel]

1500 photos at 1.6 each

40 minutes integration

ISO 1600 1.6" f5.6

[dense yew]

do you have a remote shutter button?

[next kernel]

nope

my camera has a built in intervalometer though

[dense yew]

but do you take like a pic and then you move the camera to center it

[next kernel]

yes

every 3 minutes

[dense yew]

oh okay but how many pics do you take every 3 min?

[dense yew]

sorry for all the questions

[next kernel]

it's alright

100

[dense yew]

okay nice thanks ima try this:)

[next kernel]

what bortle are you in?

[dense yew]

3 or 4

[next kernel]

oh then you're set

i took my andromeda image in bortle 5 conditions

[dense yew]

that image in bortle 5 is crazy

[bleak rain]

i see northen light while i was doing astrophotography

[next kernel]

woahhhh

lucky

[vapid goblet]

WHAT ALTITUDE

[bleak rain]

wdym

?

[vapid goblet]

I mean

what latitude did you take that from mb

[bleak rain]

51° 2' 55.014'' N i live in aberta

[next kernel]

edmonton?

[vapid goblet]

wow

im 42N and no lights here

[bleak rain]

calgary7

[next kernel]

sheesh

I used to live in calgary for a couple years

enjoy the lights man

[bleak rain]

very rare tho

[vapid goblet]

bortle

?

[next kernel]

I'm in 44 and got them a couple months ago

remember that one night when the solar flare went crazy

[vapid goblet]

yeah that was a kp8 solar storm

it was CLOUDY.

for me

[next kernel]

yup yup

[next kernel]

noooo

[vapid goblet]

I hope this night blows up

I wanna see it go boom

[bleak rain]

5 in a full moon

[vapid goblet]

WHGAAAAAAAA

Aura is THAT visible

[bleak rain]

im not sure if its 5

[vapid goblet]

either way.. full moon aurora

[bleak rain]

yea i was suprised too

[vapid goblet]

this visible naked eye?

[next kernel]

I saw it in 9

[bleak rain]

yes

[vapid goblet]

wow

if the storm was just a little bit stronger i might get to see it

[next kernel]

I miss not catching an aurora when I lived there mna

[bleak rain]

yes

[next kernel]

you do AP in the rockies?

[bleak rain]

idk

[next kernel]

?

[bleak rain]

idk what ap?? mean

?

[next kernel]

astrophotography 😂

[bleak rain]

oh thought you ment if i stacked it, no i went to country side

in a farm

[next kernel]

go do one in vermillion, one of the things I regret the most not doing

[bleak rain]

damn

[bleak rain]

wow 🤑

[next kernel]

not my photo, got it from google

[bleak rain]

ik

[next kernel]

I love DSO but I've been dabbling in widefield as well lately

partly cuz I don't have a tracker

[bleak rain]

oh ok

[tepid root]

Hi

[nimble laurel]

Guys what is TEC cooling

[fleet latch]

The Dumbbell Nebula with my 130mm newt and Canon T3

[lethal pollen]

Very nice image, how long was the exposure and under what light pollution? Also are you using a coma corrector?

[fleet latch]

Bortle 7, used PI to process. Used 100 x 45" subs

And I used dynamic crop to get rid of some of the coma issues

So I do not have a correct

No

I turned up saturation a bit to show off color of the neb a bit more

That was the goal

Shall try it out

[lethal pollen]

Would it be worth it to add 3 more hours to this data? This is already 2h40m in Bortle 9. My siril processing techniques are not very good so a better image is definitely possible with my existing data but I’d assume I can get the Cygnus wall more visible with a greater integration time

[lethal pollen]

Seems like 2 more hours was worth it

[twin pawn]

Nice!

[lethal pollen]

6h 50m, probably will reprocess again though

Also because I have no guiding, I take 30s subs which means my SNR is not great

[strange gazelle]

Just finished editing m31 in PI 138 subs at 3 mins iso 800 shot on a Eos 2000Da and a Photoline 80ED

[noble dagger]

Took this image some while ago

[strange gazelle]

Oh I like that one it has some kind of depth in it unlike mine haha

[kind karma]

f ratio ? bortle ? intergration time ?

as i just imaged m31 tonight and i’m about to have my final image and it looks nothing like yours

whoops i didn’t realise i’m in the DSLR chat😂

[noble dagger]

f/5, bortle 3, 3hrs

New moon

[kind karma]

ahh this is my bortle 7 , 4 hours , f5.9

astrocam tho

[noble dagger]

What a pain to image from light polluted areas…😭😭😭

[kind karma]

fr it’s annoying, for nebulae imma get an L extreme or L enhance once i get guiding

[noble dagger]

Nice, I already have the l-enhance (it‘s great!).

[kind karma]

nice , yeah , i would get L extreme but it leaves halos , but it’s defo goona be something i think about wether i get extreme or enhance as i need it 😭 bortle 7 man

[thin salmon]

Duo narrowband isn't great for an unmodded dslr

All it does is isolate ha and oiii. Unmodded dslrs block out most of the ha signal

[kind karma]

r u talking to me ?

i have an astrocam , uranus c pro

[thin salmon]

Oh lol

I assumed not considering this is the dslr thread

Duo narrowband is def worth it imo them

[craggy lark]

As a begginer, I want to upgrade my Canon 450D with a 18-55mm kit lens to something better with more reach.

I was thinking to buy a 75-300mm cheap lens second hand. Is it a good idea? My budget is about 50 to 70 €

[fading osprey]

No please don’t buy a 75-300mm

If you want something dedicated for Astro get a vintage lens and adapter

From my research a super takumar 200mm f4, a canon FD 135mm f2.8, or a nikkor 180mm F2.8 are some of the best bang for your buck lenses

[twin pawn]

I need to look into that 180 f2.8

Well, the Canon 135 f2.8 is what I need.

I don't wanna be adapting F mount to EF again lol

[fading osprey]

From what I’ve seen it looks really nice https://astropix.com/html/equipment/nikon_180mm.html it’s just very chonky

[thin salmon]

You're interested in a 135mm lens I see

Preparing roki_sales_pitch.exe

[twin pawn]

Lol I would, maybe after I get the 533.

[noble dagger]

[twin pawn]

Lol

[hoary cradle]

First time photographing m33. Fov really suits the 130pds/d5300 combination. Still needs some better editing but can't seem to get more colour out of the galaxy

[next kernel]

first time taking a tracked picture, unguided

stock DSLR, no filter, bortle 8 for 45 minutes

[rustic meteor]

[twin pawn]

That's actually not bad for bortle 8 stock DSLR

[hoary cradle]

getting better at editing!

[tepid root]

I took new image, 7 hours of data

[next kernel]

Stock DSLR, no filter, bortle 5, 45 minutes

[lethal pollen]

Reprocess on 7h NGC 7000

[next kernel]

that looks like a bit too much contrast, I think lightening it up a bit would make it a lot better. You have minimal noise from your long integration so i don't think is should be a problem

just some constructive criticism

[lethal pollen]

I agree, however the issue is that due to the high amount of skyglow in my area (bortle 9), the dark nebulae become way to light if i decrease contrast

I think the next best thing I can do is to get a filter to reduce some of the skyglow

[lethal pollen]

Less dark histogram clipping here

[twin pawn]

What software are you doing DBE in?

Background extraction

[balmy urchin]

The Andromeda Galaxy

5.5hrs

b2

[lethal pollen]

Siril for background extraction

[twin pawn]

Try to only place DBE samples on the darkest areas and away from the actual nebulosity.

[balmy urchin]

did a little re edit

[noble dagger]

How did you achieve this detail of the core?

[balmy urchin]

I used hdr multiscale transform tool in Pix it dimmed the core properly I used BlurX for the deets

[noble dagger]

Nice!

[balmy urchin]

Thanks

[languid haven]

some pictures I took with a stock dslr (the orion one is untracked)

[bleak rain]

Any tips for Astrophotography with tripod and camera ??

[fading osprey]

Intervalometer

Also the 500 rule

[noble dagger]

Set your ISO to 3200 and collect a few hundred pics.

[candid walrus]

As much as the D3500 is one of the most cursed DSLRs ever, its sensor performance is actually incredible given the price
ISO 200
22x420s (not exact amount of subs)

[twin pawn]

Is the d3500 a Toshiba or Sony sensor?

I know my d7200 is Toshiba

[candid walrus]

Ive tried looking before, they dont specify what sensor or make lol

[candid walrus]

Nvm found its a Sony sensor

[twin pawn]

Prolly better then most

[candid walrus]

Good sensor, terrible compatibility issues, cant even use NINA to take longer than 30s exposures lol

[twin pawn]

Rip, that's weird... you use the ascom DSLR driver?

[candid walrus]

Yeah, Nikon havent released any info on the cameras coding so software creators struggle making compatible softwares for it, the only one that works to take longer than 30s exposures is Digicamcontrol

[twin pawn]

Rip

[tepid root]

Stock dslr community club

[vapid goblet]

ratbag you should look into a 533

[tepid root]

we should all look into stock dslrs

[candid walrus]

IMX 571, Altair 26C

[vapid goblet]

even better

[candid walrus]

As good as the 533 may be, its sensor is small for my liking

[vapid goblet]

fair

[candid walrus]

Any new images with the Uranus?

[vapid goblet]

yep processing now