Milky Way turns out bad

[civic mural]

Hello, I have stacked 52 lights with 13s of the Milky Way with APP. These were taken with a Canon 6Da in Dennheritz in Germany. Unfortunately I am not satisfied with the result. Especially since I followed the guide from Nico Carver and he achieved a much better result. The core is currently not near the horizon here, but I still expected more. If required, I can also share the individual frames.

Can anyone tell me why the image is so bad and what I can do, or would anyone like to show me what I can do with the data? Attached is the maximum I have managed (the foreground is still blurred)

Link to the stack: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1SiLYoEhEb-o6jsbAXhAeWOS1-n2Q210f?usp=sharing

[mystic idol]

untracked?

[civic mural]

This is a single Frame

[mystic idol]

?

[civic mural]

This is a unstacked frame

[civic mural]

I am not sure what you need from me 🙂

[mystic idol]

You did this untracked?

[mystic idol]

Why does it go from this to this lol

[civic mural]

Well the first one is the stacked and processed image by me. The one just shown is an unstacked single frame

[mystic idol]

your main issue probably is that you're not tracked

what do you find bad about the image?

[civic mural]

Well i could put it on my eq5 pro but i like the small setup. And I have seen great results with untracked images

[mystic idol]

What do you not like about this tho?

[civic mural]

I wanted something more like this. He used a T7 untracked with 15min integration time

[mystic idol]

how long was your integration time

[civic mural]

It should be around 7 minutes for the test image. However I expected a much better result

[civic mural]

It was 11.2 minutes

[mystic idol]

theres probably a few people that can help u with this

[gloomy vapor]

His was probably a much lower aperture letting in a lot more light

[civic mural]

What would you recommend? I used a 14mm f2.8

[gloomy vapor]

The lower the better if u have that then use it the best is def like f1 to1.8 but 2.8 works fine

[civic mural]

I’ve seen great images with this setup. So how high should I set the ISO?

I still think it is a processing error tho.

[gloomy vapor]

I’d say a good range is around 400-1600 generally works well for me

[civic mural]

Okay and I thought I was too low with 2000.

Sowas anyone want to process my data from the beginning? I fear that unneeded it up in processing

[gloomy vapor]

That’s prob bc ur doing 13 second exposures of do as much as u can use the rule of 500 tho

[dusky plaza]

@civic mural I think you've got an okay workflow, but it looks like your data is out of focus. If you're not tracking I can't think why the ground is blurry though. when I started doing widefield, I was using a 15mm ƒ2.8 it's plenty, just shoot longer and make sure you are in focus before you start shooting.

My guess is your focal point was set on your foreground. If you want both to be sharp, you've gotta do a focus stack

[civic mural]

There is a main problem of mine. It seems as I can not find the focus point for my lens. It seems like the focus ring ends before I can find focus..

Seeing this I think that integration time is not the problem here 😬

[civic mural]

In the single frame I posted the foreground is sharp. I think this is a result of the stacking

[dusky plaza]

on camera lenses, the "infinity point" is never all the way. you will have to back it off until you get sharp stars. before I had live view I would jack my ISO up and take like 3s shots gradually adjusting my focus ring until I was sharp. if your lens has a window for hyperfocal distance, you can just go back to the same spot each night.

as for the shaprness, all three of the photos you have do not have stars in focus. they're still blurry. this is a mostly processed image from monday night on my 14mm see the difference in the larger stars?

[civic mural]

For a later shot of the stars only I kind of found the focus as seen in the picture. This is so far off from infinity that I wonder if this can possibly be right. Do you think this can be right?

[civic mural]

That is my dram image to print out. And yes, I see the difference

[dusky plaza]

that is likely too far off of infinity, but like I said. just make tiny adjustments until you see pinpoints on ur LCD screen

(zooming into see ofc)

what are you stacking with?

[civic mural]

This is the picture I took with this focus. In live view I was not able to find a different focus point :/

[civic mural]

Astro Pixel Processor (it runs well on Mac)

[dusky plaza]

I might try it. I'm unsatisfied with SLS. ginna try SIRIL first though

[dusky plaza]

This looks a lot better

it there a reason you're using monochrome?

[civic mural]

It is great to use and gives me as a beginner great results that keep me motivated. I tested Siril ans Pixinsight as well. However APP was the best so far

[dusky plaza]

you know, I bet the reason the ground is blurry is from the stacking process. the software has to be told to keep the ground still since it's transforming the images to allign the stars

[civic mural]

It is a simple Astro modified 6D😬

[civic mural]

I am sure this is the reason. I can do it in PS but I didn’t do the work since it was not worth it because the Milky Way turned out shitty

[dusky plaza]

but the mod doesn't preclude it from seeing color. you can take color photos, right?

[civic mural]

Yes. It is a 6Da and should give color. It might be the short integration time and ISO that made it grey

[dusky plaza]

IT question here: you are shooting in RAW, not .jpeg, yes?

[civic mural]

Yes I do. Anything else would be considered a crime in Astro photography, right?

[dusky plaza]

very much so, haha. My brain was just thinking along the lines of in-camera profiles.

[civic mural]

I just set the WB custom to about 4200 which gives better results on the LED screen

[civic mural]

What settings did you use here?

[dusky plaza]

#🥛-widefield-milkyway-pics message

start with the focus and go from there. I think you need to nail your data before you figure out the rest.

[civic mural]

Crazy equipment 🙂

[civic mural]

You are totally right. I just hope my lens is not broken

[dusky plaza]

I doubt it. go give it another try!

[civic mural]

Thanks for the help. When there was a clear night I’ll send you the results

[desert leaf]

Single frame phone edit