Never thought I could shoot these images

[James G]

I have been following a number of different 'Night Sky' threads over the last few months and although I have been moderately successful with wide field capture, I had not really considered narrow fields of view like the Orion Nebula (M45). My main reason for not attempting narrow field was because I live in Birmingham, a city with high levels of light pollution, and, since I did not want noticeable star trails, I need to keep to exposure times of 1 sec or less with the lowest usable ISO set around 1000-1600. The resulting images suffer from lots of noise. Previous attempts had proved deeply disappointing, and I had resigned myself to sticking to wide views.

I had known of the DeepSkyStacker software for some time, but had always assumed it was more tuned to tracked telescopic astrophotography, rather than static camera rigs.

Then, I saw Hasseeb Modi's shot taken with a 200mm telephoto, using DeepSkyStacker to 'pre-process' noise and then stack the images .

So, a few weeks back I shot 4 groups of 15 images using slightly different settings for each group. (F6.4 / 0.8 & 1sec/ ISO 1000 & 1600 using Canon 7DMk1 and Sigma 50-500mm telephoto at 500mm)

The camera was tripod mounted and images shot in manual mode using mirror lockup. (I pre-focussed the lens for infinity and taped it to stop any potential slide)

I also shot 4 dark frame images (ie same F No, & Exp, but with lenscap on)

I processed each group in DeepSkyStacker to remove noise, and finally, I processed all 4 groups (60 images), simultaneously in DeepSkyStacker. with hindsight I should have processed them all straight off
Post processing was then done in PS6.

I am truly amazed at the final results.

#1 Combined captures processed in DSS (60 images)



#2 Subset of captures cropped andprocessed in DSS (15 images)


#3 Single frame, processed using Photoshop only


#4 RAW frame (with a levels adjustment to make it visible!)



I think I'll be looking for some darker sky nearby and upping the image count to 200.

If you have never used DeepSkyStacker, it is worth spending 24mins watching this video

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e0JSTF8SGi4

Forrest Tanaka gives a very easy introduction to the whole process from capture to post process

[Donald]

Well done, James. Trying, experimenting, learning. It's what it's all about. Great results and enjoy making more images like this.

[NorthernFocus]

Excellent. Nicely done indeed.

[James G]

Dan, Donald, thanks.
I'm still amazed at the result. I've a long way to go yet to catch up with Haseeb. (Oops just realised I misspelt his name... sorry Haseeb...)

Donald, as regards always leaning, I finally cracked a problem of blurring 'noisy' nebula' in post processing, using a combination of Gaussian Bur and Apply Image on two layers. I need to play around with the parameters a bit more to check I actually understand the trick.
Will probably post about that later

[xpatUSA]

Having visited Broomijam some 40-odd years ago, I'm amazed at the clarity of the final images.

Most interesting and thanks for posting!

[IzzieK]

Gorgeous shots James! Excellent! 'Wish Haseeb will see these where I am no expert in. Thank you for telling us your experience and showing it here for us to learn to and want to learn how to. It must be a very good feeling to have achieve something this great...

[HaseebM]

Dan, Donald, thanks.
I'm still amazed at the result. I've a long way to go yet to catch up with Haseeb. (Oops just realised I misspelt his name... sorry Haseeb...)

Donald, as regards always leaning, I finally cracked a problem of blurring 'noisy' nebula' in post processing, using a combination of Gaussian Bur and Apply Image on two layers. I need to play around with the parameters a bit more to check I actually understand the trick.
Will probably post about that later

It is always a nice feeling when someone out there wants to emulate you. Very well done James, in fact I daresay, your first capture is far better than mine.

At this point, I do not want to suggest anything because then you will start thinking on those lines. Just keep capturing objects like M 42 ( not M 45 which is Pleiades ) and keep posting your results. You will soon catch up with images posted by me and others.

[Shadowman]

Nicely done.

[selig1656]

Great post and series.

[James G]

Hasseeb, thanks for M42.... I was photographing the Pleiades a few days ago.... need to engage brain more!

Its only taken me 50 odd years to get that shot! (I'm a slow learner Donald!)

I had a 2" refractor back in the 60's, as a teenager, and tried attaching my first SLR (Zenit E.... I've still got it ).

I got very fuzzy moon shots and failed completely with nebulae, globular clusters etc. Living and working in big cities all my working life, I kind of gave up on the idea of astrophotography. When I switched to digital photography I got back into 'shooting the moon', and as I already said wide star fields. Your post was a 'eureka' moment.

Andromeda next, .....

I've said it before, and no doubt will bore many others before I'm finished, but CiC, and its 'worlwide' community is the best photography forum for information and teaching across all skill levels! IMHO,

[Rebel]

Great images James, and some useful info I can take away and try myself.