My first real astrophotography image. Thoughts?

Hello all, I'm new to astrophotography and have taken my first real image. I'd like some helpful feedback on ways to improve for my second attempt. This was taken with a Nikon d7000 with a Tamron 70-200mm, no tracking. I took 231 4 second exposures, attacked in Sequator and processed in GIMP. I know it isn't great but it's a start. Any advice would be appreciated. Thanks. Chris

Being a newbie myself, I don't have much advice to give other than 'keep going'. You're off to a good start.
Getting into tracking would probably be the logical next step.

Hey Chris, also a beginner here (my first shot is the same nebula!) but that looks great for un-tracked! What patience, to take that many subs! You didn't mention anything in your post about dark frames, bias frames or flat frames. Have you tried adding these to your stacking process? It could help to further reduce the noise. Keep going!

I think it is a good first one - compared to mine ;-) I believe there is more information in the data. To evaluate that it would be helpful if you could give me access to the _unedited_ stack of your image. I can take a closer look then, edit it and send it back to you probably with some hints how to reveal more details - if there are more details to show :-)

Agree to the comment above. If you take your photos in a light polluted area, then try to look into the different possibilities with/to use light pollution filters.

They are alot of nice detailsin the image, this is really good for your first try! I think you can make the colours better, for example in Fitswork, where you only have to make a right click on the background and then set the black value [15x15]. Also it seems that you didnt get the focus exactly, this is crucial in astrophotography hence it cannot be repaired in postprocessing. Try to use a bahtinov mask, you can buy one or make it by yourself with a piece of cardboard and a sharp knife.

Salve sono un vecchio astrofotografo, mi sono deciso a scrivere, perché vorrei entrare in contatto ammesso che ci sia ancora qualcuno che usa il vecchio sistema fotografico, e che come me lo applica in parte al sistema attuale, ossia metodo analogico, modificato digitale; spiego come eseguo le mie immagini, naturalmente è obbligatorio montatura equatoriale ultima mia scelta Optron cm40 ottica variabile, mia scelta 9"1/4 luoghi cieli di alta collina o di montagna, fotocamera digitale canon eos 60 d a , ora passo all'esecuzione: metto a fuoco un stella al fuoco diretto fotocamera guida fuori asse al telescopio, la canon permette un fuoco molto preciso, quindi trovo il soggetto, e con l'osservazione stabilisco gli asa e il tempo di posa che sarà una singola posa, in genere dai 15 minuti in poi, tempo stimato 12 minuti per iniziare la posa che avverrà guidando su una stella attraverso un oculare con reticolo illuminato sulla guida fuori asse,
diciamo che dopo 30 minuti vedrò il risultato sullo schermo della fotocamera, probabilmente è possibile che anch'io un giorno usi una telecamera con guida automatica davanti a un computer, ma mi piace molto stare sotto le stelle al buio con un po'di musica classica e guidare la mia foto ciao gente cieli sereni

Michael Timm- I would be more than happy to give you access to the unedited stack. And grateful for any hints you can give. How should I do that? Do I just upload the tiff to my profile?

Flemming Kristensen - thank you. And I've been thinking about tracking a bit. But tracking mounts are expensive and the coronavirus has put things on hold in the financial department. I have a celestron 5se, but I can't get it to track and the camera is kind of heavy for it. I'm reluctant to load the camera on it.

Robert Schumann - thanks. I did think my focus might be a little suspect. I thought it was pretty close when I was out in the field but when I got home I noticed. I'll look into the bahtinov mask today. I've never heard of fitswork, I'll have to check it out. I only have GIMP at the moment. And I don't really know how to use it properly. I mainly just played with the curves a little I think. I'm not comfortable with layers and such yet.

Thank you all for your input

Hi,
Congrats for your first astrophoto. 2 things I would suggest to improve upon:
1. You seems to have been somewhat out of focus (I assume you shooting at 200 mm right?). Spend more time focusing at top magnification on a bright star. Very small adjustment will do the trick.
2. 4 seconds is why too much for the focal length and camera combo you used. 2 seconds max. Better 1s.

If you plan to use telephoto lens you'll be better served with any old Nikkor ED manual lens. The 180mm is very nice and quite cheap to source used (I have one myself).

Michael Timm- I would be more than happy to give you access to the unedited stack. And grateful for any hints you can give. How should I do that? Do I just upload the tiff to my profile?

No need to do that. I sent you a PM about it.

andrea tasselli - I do have a nikkor 35mm F1.4 available to me, would I be better off using that one next time?

hello Barn , che bellissimi ricordi!! la tua foto è uguale alla mia prima immagine. ero felicissimo nel vedere quei colori . Certo devi lavorare ancora, però sei sulla buona strada..poi sono riuscito anche io a fare qualche foto piu carina quindi…………… continua cosi , qua su astrobin ci sono dei grandissimi astrofotografi quindi possiamo solo migliorare. A PRESTO Marcello

Hi Barn,

You could but I would suggest to use for broad panoramas, not nebulae. I mean, you could shoot the entire constellation with such a lens but the size of even M42 will be puny. And you might need to stop it down 1 step to keep acceptable aberrations at the edges. I have the 35mm f/2.5 and while very sharp has still significant astigmatism at the edge of the APS sensor (same Nikon you have).

Andrea

Hi Barn,

Congrats on your 1st image and well done! Really good start.

Being only several months in myself I have (as we all have) been through some interesting pains recently.
1st thing is to resist the urge to spend money! What you have is enough to do AP. It’s a financial slippery slope once you start so master the gear you have now as it will allow you to assess what you want for the future.

Your picture
1. It looks like you are out of focus. Next time pick a star and spend some time fine tuning the focus. If you have a digital zoom, use that to help. This will have a big impact.
2. I would reduce the exposure time, the sky is moving too fast at your FL.
3. Processing - use the curves in gimps to manage the colours red/blue/green to get the right colour background, I.e. reduce the blues and reds.

IF you feel inclined to spend money, buy an equatorial mount. DO NOT budget here as this is the most important element in AP. I opted for a cheaper mount and I already need a new one for a number of reasons - weight capacity, accuracy being just 2.

Good luck and looking forward to watching your progress.

Fitswork is Freeware, it might be a bit old but it is really good for some tasks. My beginner-software was DeepSkyStacker, Fitswork and GIMP.

Thank you all for your tips! Hopefully the weather will behave long enough for me to get out and get a second attempt soon!

nice picture! You just need to follow up and adjust the focus … you already have the illusion and the desire to be cold. good heavens!

I can say that you caught more details than I did on my first attempt at Orion. There may be room for improvement, but not much, without tracking. Maybe I'm wrong but I think deep sky astrophotography is not possible without tracking. If you have the opportunity to try a tracker and see what a 60 sec exposure can do, you will give the answer yourself.
Congratulations on the result!
It's impressive that you could do this without tracking.
Clear sky!

I can say that you caught more details than I did on my first attempt at Orion. There may be room for improvement, but not much, without tracking. Maybe I'm wrong but I think deep sky astrophotography is not possible without tracking. If you have the opportunity to try a tracker and see what a 60 sec exposure can do, you will give the answer yourself.
Congratulations on the result!
It's impressive that you could do this without tracking.
Clear sky!

Indeed is entirely possible to do deepsky astrophotograpy without tracking but is not very convenient! Is just a matter of scale and of image depth. If you are willing to compromise on both, yes you can.

I think everyone has started in the way you did. Congratulation for the results; here some hints to improve without spending $$:
1) With DSLR always shot images in raw format.
2) Use manual focus. You can easily find the right spot using live focus or peaking manual focus.
3) Don't exceed with ISO, usually 800 is good, but you can go higher to 3200 (it depends if your camera is old or new. Usually you should keep low ISO with old cameras).
4) Use a remote control to shot. If you don't have one, set some seconds of delay, to avoid vibrations.
5) Shot some darks frames.
6) There is one very intuitive software to stack and process (just a bit ) the images called Deep Sky Stacker, quite easy to use.
Keep it going!!! CS

Hello Chris,

Your first ever photo is good enough to wet more appetite and I hope you are mighty hungry :-)

Focusing and post processing are a matter of practice thus time, but you won't get around a tracking device perhaps you can source one second hand. Four seconds are too short for gathering sufficient light and too long if you want to have round stars. A total exposure duration of 15 minutes is insufficient even for the big Orion.

Also, stacking takes a lot longer with a heap of frames. A DSLR can be set to 30 seconds max without optional shutter release. This is a good point to start – with tracking. It is easy for me to write because I have a tracking mount on loan for years.

As for this image, in GIMP, you can reduce the red hue and apply noise reduction, including color noise. This will improve your background and make M42 stand out a bit better.

What you could try for your next attempt is reduce the focal length, say to 135mm. Wide fields look amazing :-)

We'll see more from you 👍

Cheers
Robert

Nice job for a first image! You have some great advice from all these excellent practitioners of this craft. I think you will find AstroBin to be a great resource and an even better community of really nice folks.

Good luck and welcome!

Good job on your first shot. Like others advised, work on your focus and all the processing will come. My first camera was a D7000 It is a pretty nice camera for the hobby. I still use it! I have thought about getting a new DSLR because the fixed display screen is a pain but I started using it with computer control and it does the job. Welcome to the hobby…be aware of the black hole that you will find in your wallet!

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