im new to this so dont judge well u can for improvements but i took some photos i do get some good ones but learning editing as well but i did this just now
took me a while since i was playing about but i just want to know if this looks good or is it bad
Personally, I’d like to know more about it. What you were imaging and how, like what camera and equipment you were using. How did you come to choose this particular object?
It reminds me of when I held a cell phone camera lens to a spotting scope trying to see if I could get a picture of Orion the second night after I finally discovered it for my first time. I still blame Orion for dragging me into Astrophotography. LOL!
I would caution you that you are on the edge of a terribly costly Black Hole of AP. But it can be a lot of fun as long as you have the patience of Job, the perseverance of Icarus, and can find it within yourself to stop and come back the next night to try again.
I took years of what I laughingly refer to as Picturds before I finally saw pictures. Like Nemo, just keep swimming. At least you are trying.
Without know what your setup is, here’s what I do see:
The weirdness at the bottom and right of your frame are stacking artifacts. This is caused when the framing shifts between exposures. It’s not unusual but should be cropped out.
It doesn’t look like any calibration frames where used, especially flats. That’s why you image is bright in the center and falls off towards the corners.
There is some tracking error as stars are a bit elongated even in the center of the frame.
My guess is that this was taken with a DSLR and lens on a basic tracking mount?
TiffsAndAstro · Mar 15, 2026, 10:39 PM
I think it looks great, and with a bit of simple post processing, look even better.
More details on how you took it please
so i havent got the best of best but ive got stuff that can do it really well so that was a tripod with a sony a6000 and a 50mm f1.8 lens i did 100 at iso 1600 and 6 exposure
SonnyE · Mar 15, 2026, 10:16 PM
Personally, I’d like to know more about it. What you were imaging and how, like what camera and equipment you were using. How did you come to choose this particular object?
It reminds me of when I held a cell phone camera lens to a spotting scope trying to see if I could get a picture of Orion the second night after I finally discovered it for my first time. I still blame Orion for dragging me into Astrophotography. LOL!
I would caution you that you are on the edge of a terribly costly Black Hole of AP. But it can be a lot of fun as long as you have the patience of Job, the perseverance of Icarus, and can find it within yourself to stop and come back the next night to try again.
I took years of what I laughingly refer to as Picturds before I finally saw pictures. Like Nemo, just keep swimming. At least you are trying.
was the sony a6000 with a 50mm lens f1.8 i did deep sky stacker then when to photoshop and did come curves and layers i also ran some actions did smart sharpness and so on
Tony Gondola · Mar 16, 2026, 04:39 PM
Without know what your setup is, here’s what I do see:
The weirdness at the bottom and right of your frame are stacking artifacts. This is caused when the framing shifts between exposures. It’s not unusual but should be cropped out.
It doesn’t look like any calibration frames where used, especially flats. That’s why you image is bright in the center and falls off towards the corners.
There is some tracking error as stars are a bit elongated even in the center of the frame.
My guess is that this was taken with a DSLR and lens on a basic tracking mount?
yh if ur tlaking about the wierd frame stuff along bottom and right side thats a editing mistake but my set up is sony a6000 and a 50mm f1.8 lens but yh its more of a im not sure how you want it to look like to get mainly some tips incase its over edited under edited so on so on i get really good pics but its just editing really i did use deepsky stacker as well to stack 100 photos
TrueFrame · Mar 16, 2026, 05:27 PM
Tony Gondola · Mar 16, 2026, 04:39 PM, evening out illumination across
Without know what your setup is, here’s what I do see:
The weirdness at the bottom and right of your frame are stacking artifacts. This is caused when the framing shifts between exposures. It’s not unusual but should be cropped out.
It doesn’t look like any calibration frames where used, especially flats. That’s why you image is bright in the center and falls off towards the corners.
There is some tracking error as stars are a bit elongated even in the center of the frame.
My guess is that this was taken with a DSLR and lens on a basic tracking mount?
yh if ur tlaking about the wierd frame stuff along bottom and right side thats a editing mistake but my set up is sony a6000 and a 50mm f1.8 lens but yh its more of a im not sure how you want it to look like to get mainly some tips incase its over edited under edited so on so on i get really good pics but its just editing really i did use deepsky stacker as well to stack 100 photos
Well, you still have stacking artifacts that should be cropped out. It won’t help you with this image but in future your images will be much improved if you use calibration frames (biases, darks and flats).
For flats, point the camera at the clear sky near the zenith just after sunset and take 20 frames exposed to about 50% on the histogram. The aperture and focus should be the same as when taking your subs. This will correct your dark corners. These will be used to even out the brightness of your image.
For darks, take 20 frames with the lens capped just after you finish getting your main images. Use the same exposure time and ISO as you used for your image(s).
For biases, cap the lens and set the exposure time to the fastest possible. Set the ISO to that used for your images and take 20 frames. If you use the same ISO all the time, this set can just be created once and used over and over again.
In Deep Sky Stacker, include all of your calibration frames before stacking. I don’t use DSS so I can’t tell you in detail how to do that but it should be fairly obvious.
One last point. You should be shooting RAW and any in-camera noise reduction should be turned off.
Hi! This is a great first image! My only advice for now is… just upload your images here. Why not give it a try? Welcome to AstroBin!
Tony Gondola · Mar 16, 2026, 05:50 PM
TrueFrame · Mar 16, 2026, 05:27 PM
Tony Gondola · Mar 16, 2026, 04:39 PM, evening out illumination across
Without know what your setup is, here’s what I do see:
The weirdness at the bottom and right of your frame are stacking artifacts. This is caused when the framing shifts between exposures. It’s not unusual but should be cropped out.
It doesn’t look like any calibration frames where used, especially flats. That’s why you image is bright in the center and falls off towards the corners.
There is some tracking error as stars are a bit elongated even in the center of the frame.
My guess is that this was taken with a DSLR and lens on a basic tracking mount?
yh if ur tlaking about the wierd frame stuff along bottom and right side thats a editing mistake but my set up is sony a6000 and a 50mm f1.8 lens but yh its more of a im not sure how you want it to look like to get mainly some tips incase its over edited under edited so on so on i get really good pics but its just editing really i did use deepsky stacker as well to stack 100 photos
Well, you still have stacking artifacts that should be cropped out. It won’t help you with this image but in future your images will be much improved if you use calibration frames (biases, darks and flats).
For flats, point the camera at the clear sky near the zenith just after sunset and take 20 frames exposed to about 50% on the histogram. The aperture and focus should be the same as when taking your subs. This will correct your dark corners. These will be used to even out the brightness of your image.
For darks, take 20 frames with the lens capped just after you finish getting your main images. Use the same exposure time and ISO as you used for your image(s).
For biases, cap the lens and set the exposure time to the fastest possible. Set the ISO to that used for your images and take 20 frames. If you use the same ISO all the time, this set can just be created once and used over and over again.
In Deep Sky Stacker, include all of your calibration frames before stacking. I don’t use DSS so I can’t tell you in detail how to do that but it should be fairly obvious.
One last point. You should be shooting RAW and any in-camera noise reduction should be turned off.
yh i do have some darks i forgot to add them flats i need to do and biases i need to do but yh i forgot
Die Launische Diva · Mar 16, 2026, 06:06 PM
Hi! This is a great first image! My only advice for now is… just upload your images here. Why not give it a try? Welcome to AstroBin!
thank you and yh i will its the editing i hate coz theres so much and no many vids most are about milky way and nebula no about just stars
TrueFrame · Mar 16, 2026, 06:27 PM
Tony Gondola · Mar 16, 2026, 05:50 PM
TrueFrame · Mar 16, 2026, 05:27 PM
Tony Gondola · Mar 16, 2026, 04:39 PM, evening out illumination across
Without know what your setup is, here’s what I do see:
The weirdness at the bottom and right of your frame are stacking artifacts. This is caused when the framing shifts between exposures. It’s not unusual but should be cropped out.
It doesn’t look like any calibration frames where used, especially flats. That’s why you image is bright in the center and falls off towards the corners.
There is some tracking error as stars are a bit elongated even in the center of the frame.
My guess is that this was taken with a DSLR and lens on a basic tracking mount?
yh if ur tlaking about the wierd frame stuff along bottom and right side thats a editing mistake but my set up is sony a6000 and a 50mm f1.8 lens but yh its more of a im not sure how you want it to look like to get mainly some tips incase its over edited under edited so on so on i get really good pics but its just editing really i did use deepsky stacker as well to stack 100 photos
Well, you still have stacking artifacts that should be cropped out. It won’t help you with this image but in future your images will be much improved if you use calibration frames (biases, darks and flats).
For flats, point the camera at the clear sky near the zenith just after sunset and take 20 frames exposed to about 50% on the histogram. The aperture and focus should be the same as when taking your subs. This will correct your dark corners. These will be used to even out the brightness of your image.
For darks, take 20 frames with the lens capped just after you finish getting your main images. Use the same exposure time and ISO as you used for your image(s).
For biases, cap the lens and set the exposure time to the fastest possible. Set the ISO to that used for your images and take 20 frames. If you use the same ISO all the time, this set can just be created once and used over and over again.
In Deep Sky Stacker, include all of your calibration frames before stacking. I don’t use DSS so I can’t tell you in detail how to do that but it should be fairly obvious.
One last point. You should be shooting RAW and any in-camera noise reduction should be turned off.
yh i do have some darks i forgot to add them flats i need to do and biases i need to do but yh i forgot
Darks won’t make much of a difference by themselves. Just get a complete set next time.
As a newbie, I would highly suggest going to YouTube and checking out these two guys on there. Nebula photos, by Nico Carver, and Deep Space Astro. Those two guys will help you a lot. Nico, on the shooting side and Rich at deep space Astro on the processing side of things with a computer app known as Siril. These are who I used when I first got into the hobby. They show you how to take your photos, Nico, and how to use free software to get the most out of them. Backyard Astrophotography, with Trevor is another fantastic channel, his main focus is a more photoshop take but you can gleen a lot of good info from them, they keep it down to earth and simple without having to know what you’re doing, they’ll show you how to do it and get started the right way. That’s my suggestion, otherwise guys are going to be throwing a lot of terms at you that you won’t understand. They take the time, that truly can’t be taken here, to explain it to you. Check them out. CS Tony
When I first started more than a decade ago, all of my star shots came out yellow because of light pollution. One way to change it was to shoot with Tungsten white balance. I used (and still use) a Canon T3 DSLR. It made the sky bluer, but I discontinued the practice as all my images were coming out too blue for my taste. An alternative was to shoot in auto white balance and adjust the levels, particularly the red channel to process out the light pollution. The process worked very well. Over the years, I learned other electronic techniques such as skyglow subtraction and using image layers for noise reduction. Here's a full write up on my electronic noise reduction technique:
Just a little caveat about post-procesing noise reduction. You have to be careful balancing noise reduction with realism. Too much noise reduction can make an image look unnatural, with a plastic look. But done properly, it can improve your images like night and day.
One final point. A lot of advice you might read online applies to deep sky imaging taken with specialized equipment costing many thousands, even tens of thousands of dollars. Some of that advice also applies to basic star shots. In my opinion, the capabilities of basic equipment are often overlooked. Not everyone has the time and money to do deep sky imaging or even has the interest. There is much that can be done with just basic equipment. Star colours of brighter stars show up very well in short exposures for example. There is a lot that can be done with basic equipment if one is willing to explore the possibilities. You don't need to jump into tracking mounts and expensive equipment right away, only if you choose. Some of my best Milky Way images were taken untracked with a 50 mm lens.