My First attempt at DSO's and advice

[Guest @ndyC]

I finally got the chance to experiment with my Canon 1100D and even though i am pleased on what i managed to get last night, i know the quality of the images i take will have thier limitations with a basic wedge and mount(5SE), but how can i maximise what i can achieve?

I found that higher ISOs allowed me to use lower exposure times which helped reduce star trails and I was going for between 20-25 SECs for each image taken in direct focus.

I have deep sky stacker but i am lost in its use, is there starting point for a beginner in how to use this software?

Thanks.

[Daz Type-R]

As far as first attempts go Andy I would be happy with them, as for DSS I have no clue, not even looked at it, I`m not getting into the dark arts myself, purley a visual astronomer!

I`m sure a more experianced astro imager will be along shortly who can help.

Keep at it though.

[Guest marcus]

Your nearly there......firstly, you are right in saying that there will be limitations with the current set-up you have when using a DSLR. To get the best from what you have you would need to be running at ISO 1600, depending on your skies put white balance onto daytime, or if you have a lot of orangy street lights near by then use Tungsten. Set the camera into bulb mode too, this allows you to control the exposure length, if you have one use a shutter release cable or infa red one, so your not touching the camera.

Ok....thats the easy bit done.....the key to all this is a good alignment , so make sure you do a 3 star one, this gives you a better all round alignment for your set-up. Do a few test shots to calculate when you start getting star trailing, once you have done that, you then know the limitations, and will know how long you can shoot you images for.

To enhance your pictures you can also take darks and flats files to stack with your image subs, have a look at the link here :http://cs.astronomy....16/t/45752.aspx

As for DSS this link is a basic tutorial, but great for starting out: [media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UWWaKkCUm6c

Hope this helps, any more questions then just fire away, always happy to help.

Forgot to say, to aid with focus, have a look at this link if you dont have one already.

http://www.altairastro.com/product.php?productid=16321&cat=290&page=1

Edited July 25, 2012 by marcus

[+RonC]

Thanks for that link to DSS processing Marcos, feel I can get started now!

[Brantuk]

Excellent start Andy - three in one night for a first imaging session is brilliant whatever they come out like. The guys will show you how to process those and get the best out of them. I think Glider needs to do another master class lol

(Maybe I'd learn something third time round haha)

[Guest @ndyC]

That's great advice and help. I was hoping for another session tonight but as always the clouds have rolled in to spoil my night! So tonight's a Deep sky stacker school night. It's been great to share my images and read your comments and been looking through the gallery's etc. for inspiration and have started my own album on there too.

As the dark side approaches, I will have to give my wife full control of my finances as this might turn out to be expensive.

[Guest marcus]

Look forward to seeing your results, its a great hobby..can be frustrating at times, but the key thing is to just enjoy it!!