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Archive 2014 · First Astro-Photo

frickerg
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p.1 #1 · p.1 #1 · First Astro-Photo

Hey Fmers,

First post in Landscape; I typically hang out in NW, but am not a big poster. I just went out last night to shoot some meteors and got an idea to try to shoot some deeper astro photos. I was pretty happy to finish off with this photo. This was a stack from ~100 frames from a canon 6d and 300 2.8 L IS II on a stationary tripod. Given my lack of tracking equipment, I was limited to 1.5 second frames, but was able to pull a fair bit from them. Let me know what y'all think. Happy Shooting.

Orion_Nebula_nebulosity_Stacked-redo-Edited-Photoshop by gregory.fricker, on Flickr

Dec 14, 2014 at 10:32 PM

frickerg
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p.1 #2 · p.1 #2 · First Astro-Photo

This is my first time ever stacking photos or shooting anything that is not wide field, so if anyone has any stacking/ astro processing tips, let me know.

Dec 14, 2014 at 10:33 PM

JimFox
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p.1 #3 · p.1 #3 · First Astro-Photo

Hey Greg,

Nice work here. I really like what you came up with. So you said you didn't have a tracking device? You just did 1/5 sec shots and stacked them? What overlay method did you use?

Jim

Dec 14, 2014 at 11:25 PM

harshaj1
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p.1 #4 · p.1 #4 · First Astro-Photo

This is impressive work without tracking gear. My question is how do you locate the nebula?
harsha

Dec 14, 2014 at 11:30 PM

frickerg
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p.1 #5 · p.1 #5 · First Astro-Photo

Thanks guys, I appreciate the comments. @JimFox, I did not have a tracking device. I did 1 and 1/2 second exposures. I shot about 100 "subs" and about 20 "darks" for calibration purposes. I used a variety of programs to see what processing I liked best. This photo came out of Nebulosity using a 2x drizzle and sigma clipped median stacking for the images. I then used a high pass filter and played with the levels in photoshop afterwards.

@harshaj1, I honestly used an iPhone app to see what stars/nebulae were where. Orion nebula is really easy to find as its literally just "below" Orion's belt right now.

One day, I hope to pick up a tracking mount and will be able to use much longer "subs" to pull more info out and avoid this dreaded noise.

Dec 15, 2014 at 12:56 AM

Klaus Priebe
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p.1 #6 · p.1 #6 · First Astro-Photo

Nice work without a tracking mount. You can do away with any Dark frames if you dither on your subs. Saves a lot of time and effort subtracting them from the mix.

Dec 15, 2014 at 01:41 AM

frickerg
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p.1 #7 · p.1 #7 · First Astro-Photo

@Klaus, so if I am processing via drizzle, I take it the sensor noise is taken out already because the signal, the nebulae, are moving all around the frame and thus the noise from the darks need not be taken out? Did I introduce more noise by taking out this noise "twice"? Thanks.

Dec 15, 2014 at 02:05 AM

dgdg
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p.1 #8 · p.1 #8 · First Astro-Photo

I think that is an impressive demonstration. Maybe you caught the bug!
Can't comment on the processing other than you can teach me some day when I try it.

David

Dec 15, 2014 at 08:45 AM

Vern Dewit
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p.1 #9 · p.1 #9 · First Astro-Photo

Wow. Very impressive for no tracking mount and 300mm!! Congrats.

Dec 15, 2014 at 02:34 PM

frickerg
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p.1 #10 · p.1 #10 · First Astro-Photo

Thanks guys, I appreciate the nice comments. Now to get myself an astrotrac.

Dec 16, 2014 at 11:32 AM

JohanEickmeyer
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p.1 #11 · p.1 #11 · First Astro-Photo

Seems like going with a tracking mount would help, but is it worth it? Cost and weight.

How about making a simple barn door tracker used with your current technique?

Great result by the way!

Dec 19, 2014 at 05:28 AM

dgdg
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p.1 #12 · p.1 #12 · First Astro-Photo

If you have the patience out in the cold, at night, maybe on vacation to constantly turn a barn door tracker - bless your heart. Maybe you will build your own motor for it as well. I think for deep sky objects you will need to see when your telephoto focal length begins to be affected by your mount's periodic error and lack of precise polar alignment. For something like this you will want something fairly tight. For wide field, sure. Or just buy an ioptron skytracker for wide field, sit back, and be done with it. Enjoy the view with your own eyes too. DSO other than orion and Andromeda are pushing the limits of conventional camera setups. If you catch this bug, get ready to buy an expensive refractor and mount.

Dec 19, 2014 at 06:56 AM


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