9 replies to this topic

[Nao]

Hi everyone,

Here is my attempt to catch the Great Nebula in Orion and its surroundings without an equatorial mount, but with a fast lens and Nikon D3S DSLR ("the low-light king")

Raw data acquired during five nights in March from a balcony in Khmelnytskyi, Ukraine (Bortle 7 sky)

 

Gear:

- Tamron SP 300mm f/2.8 LD IF telephoto lens (wide open)

- Nikon D3S

- tripod

 

Stacked 5212 of 1-second subexposures at ISO 10000.

Calibrated with flats only.

 

Software used: Iris, Astra Image, PixinsightLE, StarNet, Topaz Denoise AI, Adobe Photoshop

Attached Thumbnails

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Edited by Nao, 28 April 2025 - 10:14 AM.

[Zambiadarkskies]

Nice. In fact I think it's the best untracked image I have seen actually.

[Faber]

Very interesting as an experiment!
For sure the D3 and a 300 f2.8 lens aids, but is very good for a bortle 7.
How long was the processing time? I suppose hours …

[T.M.E.]

Nice. In fact I think it's the best untracked image I have seen actually.

I agree! I started out shooting everything untracked, and naturally shot Orion - but it certainly did not look this good Love that you are shooting with a D3S too.

[Zambiadarkskies]

I agree! I started out shooting everything untracked, and naturally shot Orion - but it certainly did not look this good Love that you are shooting with a D3S too.

Same! My untracked Carina looked like a red blob of nothing.
D3S is a beast. I am a Canon shooter and at the time was so jealous of that Nikon. Canon did not have anything near as good. Not that I was in the market for pro bodies. But later on, a used 1DMKIV to date was my favourite ever camera. Shame I eventually wore it out. Which on it's own is a feat 🤣

[gcardona]

Very nice! I like the dust. Rarely do we get the dust.

[auroraTDunn]

VERY IMPRESSIVE

You even started getting the dust lanes outside the main body of M42 and good color, you can even pick out the Trapezium!

 

The only big question I have is on the halos around the bright (pretty much all white stars), is that from the raw images or introduced post or? I find it odd since its really only noticeable around the white stars especially the larger ones. If you could clean that up it would take the image to yet another level!

[JF1960]

Nice job.  Stacking 5212 images must have melted your computer!!

[Nao]

Thank you everyone for such nice reviews!

 

 

How long was the processing time? I suppose hours …

It took about 30 hours to align every image. Iris is not optimized for multi-core processing, this is why it took so long. But still it is one of the best software for aligning images with field rotation.

Calibration took about 4-5 hours, and stacking took about the same.

 

 

D3S is a beast. I am a Canon shooter and at the time was so jealous of that Nikon. Canon did not have anything near as good. Not that I was in the market for pro bodies. But later on, a used 1DMKIV to date was my favourite ever camera. Shame I eventually wore it out. Which on it's own is a feat

By the way, I did some long-exposure tracked imaging with Nikon D3S on EQ5, but with long exposures (30 seconds or more) D3S had almost no advantage over my Nikon D5100. But when I compared Nikon D3S and Nikon D5100 with short exposures (1-2s) and high ISO values, D3S was the clear winner.

 

 

 

The only big question I have is on the halos around the bright (pretty much all white stars), is that from the raw images or introduced post or? I find it odd since its really only noticeable around the white stars especially the larger ones. If you could clean that up it would take the image to yet another level!

Just checked the raw sum and intermediate processing files. These halos were introduced by Topaz Denoise AI sharpening algorithm. I think I should try some other settings.

[UP4014Fan]

Great job and great image!  And given what's happening there, I'm glad you were able to focus on this (no pun intended).