im new to all of this, as you can see this is my terrible photo of the north american nebula. i heard it was an easly nebula to get so it was a clear night last night. i have a unmotified DSLR 6Ti with a rokinon 85MM f/1,4 lens. i took 300 15 sec long exposures. 30 dark/flats/bias. used DDS to stack and PS to TRY to post process. maybe its my equipment that isnt strong enough, but i heard it was an easy nebula to get but the photo after processing what icould in PS came out so bad and can barley see the gas. is it my post process thats really bad and clearly needs work? or maybe my equipment just isnt strong enough. i see photos of people who use quite the same set up as me with FAR better pictures and cant seem to understand why! any help would be AMAZING, im new to this and know it takes alot of time so i figured ide put my tail between my legs and share this picture for any advice!!
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post processing help!!
Hello.
You need the plug-in
https://www.rc-astro.com/resources/GradientXTerminator/download.php
And here a video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a-Zuo5hMxJs
You need the plug-in
https://www.rc-astro.com/resources/GradientXTerminator/download.php
And here a video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a-Zuo5hMxJs
Thank you! I downloaded it but when I go to open it, it comes up in PS and says its not the right kind of document, ill mess around and figure it out thank you!
Be on the lookout for stray light. I had a disappointing night because of a strong gradient like that. To fix it, I stood near the opening of the lens/telescope opening and observed any light that could be interfering with my images and then hung a black panel with a spare inexpensive tripod I had laying around to block that light path. The result was dramatic. When you remove a gradient like that (at the source), the SNR increases nicely. To check if this works, take a single frame and stretch it. Hopefully, the gradient goes away or is reduced dramatically. One last thought to consider is that the light could be coming through your viewfinder. The Canon straps come with a rubber cover that slides over the viewfinder.
Helpful Respectful Supportive
Give Startools a go it’s free to try plenty of tutorials, more info on their website first steps are - choose data from Osc , second button from left - autodev -bin - crop borders for stacking artefacts - autodev - wipe - autodev - now work through modules left to right .
PixInsight's Automatic Background Extraction can fix this issue. It is definitely stray light from light source nearby? viewfinder? something. Look for street lights, neighbor lights, even your own laptop screen.
You have to solve this as it will ruin also future images. If a future image has a large galaxy inside (eg. Andromeda) it will be hard to fix with any gradient removal tool.
You HAVE to use the lens' hood when taking astrophotos.
You have to solve this as it will ruin also future images. If a future image has a large galaxy inside (eg. Andromeda) it will be hard to fix with any gradient removal tool.
You HAVE to use the lens' hood when taking astrophotos.
Helpful Concise
I take pictures on my deck and on each post I have solar lights that are light at night, could that actually cause that much interference? Even with a lens hood on my rokinon 85 MM, auggest covering them with a towel maybe?
Any light that you don't want is the "enemy" and you need to get rid of it whenever possible. Put dark pillow cases on those solar lights. Make sure light from inside your home is minimized. Do everything you can to get it as dark as possible around your shooting zone. Good luck!
Clear Skies,
Daniel
Clear Skies,
Daniel
Well written Concise
The tips on gradient removal are good. Other than that, in my opinion the North American Nebula is not easy. It may be big and brigt, but its mostly Halpha and OxygenIII emission. Unmodified cameras are not so sensitive at Halpha wavelength, which is deep red. That makes it challenging for non-specialized equipment. Shooting with such modest equipment in heavy light pollution is an uphill battle.
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For wide angle only perfect sky condition. No LP! No moon!
Try Remove light pollution in Astro Pixel Pocessor, but I do not beleive in good result.
Try Remove light pollution in Astro Pixel Pocessor, but I do not beleive in good result.
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