midcon07
member
Reged: 09/29/07
Posts: 50
Loc: Cornville AZ
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I hope this is legal, I also posted this photo in Beginning Imaging (I am a beginner) but it fit here too and I wanted to get all the comments on how to improve that I could.
This is first light for my Hap Griffin modified Canon Rebel XTi - Fantastic Father's Day gift from my wife!
Meade LXD75 8" SCT - f6.3 focal reducer - Canon Rebel XTi @ prime focus - Maxim DL Lite for focusing. Don't know how to process FITS files so did not image capture w/ DL Lite. ISO 1600 - 10 X 60 sec. exposures, Unguided. Darks, Bias and Flats.
Converted RAW to TIF w/ Digital Photo Professional - Stacked w/ DeepSkyStacker. Not sure how to get optimal results yet so used the recommended settings. Composite TIF processed in PS CS4.
Im pretty sure it must be my alignment causing the out-of-round stars along the sides while the middle looks pretty good? Been working on drift alignment but I guess I don't have it nailed yet? How many minutes should each alignment star sit before it drifts? How critical is the selection of the alignment stars?
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Jerry
Rockin' M Observatory
N34°43'43" W-111°58'12"
Meade LXD75 8"SCT
Canon 400D (XTi) DSLR
Orion ShortTube 80-A Refractor
Meade DSI Pro
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dzirzow
member
Reged: 07/01/09
Posts: 40
Loc: Albuquerque, NM
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This is a great image!
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15" F5 Tectron
10" F4.5 Meade Starfinder
SV85S
CI700
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Nils_Lars
Post Laureate
Reged: 01/04/08
Posts: 3260
Loc: Santa Cruz Mountains , CA
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I agree , very good shot and it looks like you are hooked.
This hobby will be very rewarding and frustrating at times but its a lot of fun.
One thing I can recommend to make focusing easier is a Bahtinov mask but thats just something I found early on.
From your post it sounds like you are converting to TIFF before running through DSS and it is better to send the Raw files straight through DSS.
The stars around the edge are out of round because of field rotation which is a result of bad polar align , the drift alignment should be for longer in minutes then the shot you are taking.
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Erik
Orion Atlas Self Hypertuned (EQMOD)
Orion ED 80
Williams Optics VII reducer
Celestron 8" SCT
Orion Starshoot Autoguider
PHD guide
Canon 400D Hap Griffin Mod w/Baader filter
Astronomik clip-in LP filter and 12nm Ha
Stilleto CVF and Bahtinov mask
Tamron 75-300mm&28-80mm lenses
NexImage webcam
http://www.flickr.com/photos/31986095@N05/
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midcon07
member
Reged: 09/29/07
Posts: 50
Loc: Cornville AZ
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Thanks Erik. Why is it better to run the RAW's through DSS instead of converting to TIF first? I'll try it though and it would eliminate a step in the process.
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Jerry
Rockin' M Observatory
N34°43'43" W-111°58'12"
Meade LXD75 8"SCT
Canon 400D (XTi) DSLR
Orion ShortTube 80-A Refractor
Meade DSI Pro
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waassaabee
Carpal Tunnel
Reged: 11/26/07
Posts: 2600
Loc: Central California Coast
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Very nice image Jerry and welcome to CN's DSLR group!! You have a whole lot of potential here, and if you're like the rest of us you are re-processing this a few times... In PS watch your colors in the histogram and try to balance them, you have very red dominant here and could push the blue/green a bit. Another note is to watch your sky background as the night time sky is not completely black, and making it so you will lose faint nebulosity. So keep an eye on the histogram and always keep it from clipping to the left.
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Gary
34N 120W
-My kingdom for blue squares!-
WO Megrez 90FD/TV 0.8x FR/FF
AT8RC
mini Borg 50/Q-Guide/PHD
CGEM
Canon 350D Hap Griffin Baader mod - o.o
My Friend Flickr
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SGT500
Carpal Tunnel
Reged: 10/03/06
Posts: 2910
Loc: Ny
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Very Impressive First Light!
You have gotten alot of Valuable Advice here from Erik and Gary. stacking Raws in DSS is much better and easier than converting to TIFF before stacking. and also Garys advice on levels in photoshop is very good.
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-Sal
AstroTech Ritchey Chretien 8"
Williams Optics Zenithstar 80
Orion Atlas Eq-G
Hap Griffin Modified Canon Eos Xs (1000D)
My Astrophotography Gallery
My Sketch Gallery
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midcon07
member
Reged: 09/29/07
Posts: 50
Loc: Cornville AZ
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Gary and Sal, Thanks for your comments and advise. Exactly the type of advice I was hoping for. It's appreciated. Yes, I processed M8 three times before I was happy with the results. Taking your suggestions I'm going to run in through again and I'll post the results. Also have M20 that I shot the next night waiting in the wings.
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Jerry
Rockin' M Observatory
N34°43'43" W-111°58'12"
Meade LXD75 8"SCT
Canon 400D (XTi) DSLR
Orion ShortTube 80-A Refractor
Meade DSI Pro
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nickatnight
Carpal Tunnel
Reged: 04/14/08
Posts: 1713
Loc: Santa Clarita, CA (LA Suburbs)
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Nice shot...and a super gift from your wife! Great advise above...I'd also go for many more exposures. If I read your settings right, it's only 10 minutes of total exposure, which is an impressive 10 minutes you captured. But getting tons of data up front makes the stretching and processing, and final overall image quality go up. That said...I've got a 6 minute glob to process. 
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nickatnight
Celestron CPC 9.25" GPS
Lumicon 2" LumiBrite Diagonal
Meade s5000 18mm UWA, Meade 6.7mm UWA,
Parks G.S-5 10mm, Celestrom 40mm Plossl
Parks 2x Barlow, Meade Tele-Extender
Celestron f6.3 Focal Reducer
Lumicon UHC Filter and Deep Sky Filter
Canon Rebel XTi (prime)
Canon Powershot G9 (afocal)
Canon EOS T-Ring and Parks T-Adapter
Lumicon Univ DigiCam Adapter
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midcon07
member
Reged: 09/29/07
Posts: 50
Loc: Cornville AZ
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Here is a reprocessed version. I've taken Gary and Sal's advice by stacking the RAW frames in DSS. I tried to lighten the background sky by setting my input/output value at 35 on the curve however that may still be too dark. I also tried to backoff on the red a little. I also worked on stretching the image more and brought out quite a bit more nebulosity. Nick, I do have 30 more images but they were accidently shot at 30 sec instead of a minute. Plus the orientation is slightly different. I'm not sure if I can stack those with the orginal 10.
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Jerry
Rockin' M Observatory
N34°43'43" W-111°58'12"
Meade LXD75 8"SCT
Canon 400D (XTi) DSLR
Orion ShortTube 80-A Refractor
Meade DSI Pro
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