This was actually a second thought after my canon battery died after 2 hours imaging the Pleiades. Only managed 34 minutes of data on this before the wind picked up later in the night and I begun to throw out more subs than I was keeping.
Relatively happy with how far I was able to take it in post before it started artifacting and breaking down.
Equipment:
Sigma art 50mm @f2.8
Sony a7ii @ISO400 (unmodded)
Star Adventurer
Orion 50mm guide scope
QHY5 guidecam
Acquisition:
17x120" Lights
40 Bias
25 Darks
No Flats
Processed in PixInsight and Photoshop
Imaged from suburbs of Wellington, NZ (Bortle 5-6)
Would love to hear people's thoughts :)
Lovely michael. I love the colors i am presuming u used a filter to pick up those colors? As a total ignoramous on deep space photography. Can u explain to me what darks flats and bias means. Can u point me to free tutorials videos which can help me do this. I have a nexstar 127L and have just got the adapter to fix my camera on it but dont know much more than that.
Hi Lorretta. Thanks, and no I didn't use any filters. These are the natural colours of this area of the sky. Colours and dust such as this are only picked up with long exposure times and a significant amount of total exposure.
Bais frames are used to reduce noise in the final stacked image by capturing the noise pattern inherit to the sensor and subtracting it from the light frames.
Dark frames are also used to reduce noise but in a different way. In long exposures, the camera sensor heats up and produces more noise than it otherwise would. Dark frames are used to capture the noise pattern of the sensor operating at the same temperature as it was while capturing light frames. This noise is also subtracted from the light frames.
This process is essentially to create a higher signal to noise ratio in the final image. The signal is what we want - the data we capture of the sky - the dust, the colour, the faint stars etc. Noise is obviously what we don't want. This should always be on the forefront of our mind while capturing the night sky in any way.
Flats are a bit different. Flats are used to subtract dust particles and vignetting from the lights. In the process of stacking lights, any dust on the sensor or optics is accentuated as is any vignetting. Sometimes we can fix this in postprocessing but often its easier and more accurate to subtract flat frames.
Start off by reading the astrophotography subreddit's faq https://www.reddit.com/r/astrophotography/wiki/stacking_dsos
Astrobackyard has also got some good stuff https://astrobackyard.com/7-astrophotography-tips/
https://astrobackyard.com/beginner-astrophotography/
And if you're looking for something significantly more complex and scientific, check out John Rista's site https://jonrista.com/the-astrophotographers-guide/pixinsights/effective-...
Your Nexstar 127L isn't suitable for DSO imaging, you might be able to shoot the moon or planets with it but I don't have much knowledge on that subject.
Before I invest in anything else, where is the 127L not suitable for DSO (I imagine you mean dark sky something) imaging?
DSO stands for deep space object - basically anything that's not a milky way wide-field.
The 127L is mounted on an alt-azimuth mount which cannot track the sky accurately enough to be used for imaging, additionally, it has a 1500mm FL which is usable for imaging (small galaxies, planets and the moon) but very very long, the imaging circle it creates may only cover a small fraction of your camera sensor too, further narrowing your field of view. It's also f12, far too slow for use for imaging unless you can track the sky for 15-30 mins accuracy.
You could give it a shot for imaging the moon or planets if you can, but anything where you need a significant amount of exposure isn't going to work.
I think she means DSLR piggy back I top of the OTA with Alt Az, it should work at shorter focal lengths > 100mm
Great. I love the Pleiades. I have often wondered if the camera would die if it was very long. My Nikon D5000 gets very warm when I try anything similar.
Love the detail in this! I only wish to capture night sky images this vivid. As outlandish as it sounds, would you ever composite foreground in the picture?
It just takes it from vividly documenting the night sky to creating a story, in my opinion.
Amazing capture though.
Regular photographers always seem to want some type of foreground, which i think is mostly unnecessary unless doing Milky Way work. This photo is awesome as is, showing the entire constellation.
Also you image thru much more atmosphere near the horizon which degrades the image. Zenith is ideal...
Yeah totally agree, the image is spectacular and the hours of work that have gone in to it are even more impressive.
For the deep space lovers, astronomers etc, it is a a feast for the eyes. But for it to transcend to a wider audience, it needs maybe a human subject.
I get your point entirely though.
This is my favorite Orion with foreground by Toshiya
Yeah that elevates the image for me. Love that version!
Personally I wouldn't composite my astrophotography onto a foreground unless it was actually there, which is a challenge to do on top of the challenge of deep sky astro.
The Mount Fuji and Orion is not a composite from two different locations by the way... 😉
I know :) I know of Toshiya's work and he wouldn't be one to composite.