Guest Ryall Posted July 21, 2015 Share Posted July 21, 2015 First attempt at stacking images this picture is composed of 3 5 minute exposures at 400 ISO using a Canon 7D with a 14mm wide angle lens. Stacked in Photoshop and played with the colour balance to try and make the Milky Way more apparent. Relatively pleased with it but might've been expected more detail to come through, and didn't notice much if any difference when I stacked the images. Do I just need more exposures or am I missing something? Was quite happy with my polar alignment but I don't think it's spot on. If you zoom in on the stars they're not trailing but they are oblong. It was a very windy night which must've been vibrating my camera a lot so it could be that or a slightly off alignment not sure. c/c? Tips? everything is welcome. I've feel i've jumped off a cliff into the inescapable seas of astroimaging. Here's a direct link to the picture: http://imgur.com/OUG2U9X Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
M. Posted July 21, 2015 Share Posted July 21, 2015 Interesting. I will come back and award a 'like' I have been too generous again and completely spent all my likes Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Johnnyaardvark Posted July 27, 2015 Share Posted July 27, 2015 Hi Ryall, Not looking bad that. Bit red to the bottom right? I guess that is light pollution from around our location here in Derby. As for more detail. Longer exposures help but also depends on your light pollution. 5 minutes each though is pretty long for the milky way. You could try a higher ISO maybe? 800ISO instead of 400? Many of my Milky way shots are taken on a standard tripod without tracking and I have used maybe 25-30 second exposures, 18mm fl at 3200ISO. They are more noisy but the only way to get the detail without trailing. The main things that have brought out more detail on my images has been better dark skies and some image processing. I suspect you could adjust curves and levels to stretch your image quite a bit... but you would also stretch the skyglow in the bottom right hand corner. Some parts of Milky way are more interesting than others... images taken towards the centre have more going on generally... I am certainly no expert and still learning but here are a couple of my milky way shots from a mountain area in southern Spain and the coast in Croatia. On both occasions I wished I'd had a mount with tracking but still quite pleased with the results in the end... http://www.eastmidlandsstargazers.org.uk/topic/6936-wide-field-shots-from-andalucia (scroll down 3-5 pics for Milky Way ones... pic 3 is a composite and goes from one horizon to the other) http://www.eastmidlandsstargazers.org.uk/topic/9015-holiday-snap-milky-way-over-the-Adriatic (More recent... and maybe better processing... stacked and more experience!?) Best wishes Steve Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Ryall Posted July 28, 2015 Share Posted July 28, 2015 Thanks for the tips and nice pics! This was taken at Belper do I just need darker skies? Next chance I get I shall defo experiment more with the ISO settings and try shorter exposures. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Johnnyaardvark Posted July 28, 2015 Share Posted July 28, 2015 If you are using a mount that can track the sky then stick with longer exposures and aim for darker skies... if using a fixed tripod then use higher ISO and shorter exposures. There is a nice YouTube video tutorial on imaging the night sky and it talks about maximum exposure time vs fl when using a fixed mount. It's all pretty basic stuff but worth a watch. Composition wise I think stuff on earth/forground objects really makes these type of shots too but then you get into problems when stacking. For ground blur for example. Hence my Croatia shot is composed of two pictures in the end... Just dug this out... I'll have another more detailed look at it too! https://youtu.be/COlvv21gRXQ Steve Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Ibbo Posted July 28, 2015 Share Posted July 28, 2015 (edited) Great start to your dabbleing in the dark arts I have had a little play with the image and I think that a run through gradient exterminator after stackibg and before processing would help Edited July 28, 2015 by Ibbo Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Perkil8r Posted July 28, 2015 Share Posted July 28, 2015 Great start to your dabbleing in the dark arts I have had a little play with the image and I think that a run through gradient exterminator after stackibg and before processing would help Agreed on all points. Great start. Let's not forget you imaged that without any proper "dark" since we don't get any Astronomical twilight until next month! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Ryall Posted July 29, 2015 Share Posted July 29, 2015 Here's what good sir Ibbo did with my image and it blew my mind somewhat. Thank you all for the links and tips I shall assuredly being tinkering with my image more. Next project to look forward to are the perseids coming soon! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tweedledee Posted July 29, 2015 Share Posted July 29, 2015 That is fabulous, and I thought the first one was really good Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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