Rather than clutter up the Where You Are Photos topic, I figured it was probably best to start a seperate thread. Please consider it open for all to post their night sky photos/images regardless of equipment used.
To kick things off…
The Elephant’s Trunk, part of the nebula IC1396 in the constellation Cephus. This target needs a lot more exposure time, but considering I was learning new software and equipment, I’ll take it.
This is the Milkyway taken with my iPhone 11 Pro using the night mode… You can see the constellations of Sagittarius and Scorpius, so this is looking directly towards the galaxy’s core.
I have been trying out a piece of image processing software called PixInsight. It’s not cheap, but it can do some clever things to get the best out of your images. Combined with some payware plugin’s it is quite remarkable how it can eliminate background noise and sharpen detail. I might have to get my wallet out once the trial period is over.
" first is juicy steak, second here are bbq ribs … and this third one is hot dog, you can see onions and mustard, so then with sausage right in the core "
disclaimer: joke above doesnt work for hot dog lovers
Just in case anyone is interested in what an imaging session looks like…
This is actually a Remote Desktop from a mini-PC strapped to the tripod leg of my imaging rig. The center panel shows the latest exposure while the graph at the bottom lets you monitor the auto-guiding performance (it’s giving me fits this evening). The software is called N.I.N.A (Nighttime Imaging ‘N” Astronomy). I am still getting to grips with it and I have a lot of learning to do. The program can automate pretty much every aspect of an imaging session with the use of ‘Sequences’, where you drag and drop actions into a sequential list. I guess a form of visual programming. What is amazing to me is that N.I.N.A is free, or at least donationware. I will have to send the author some funds I think.
It looks like I might get a half decent image out of this evening’s session.
It is a stack of 72 x 3 minute images (known as subs in the Astro-imaging world). So 216 minutes worth of exposure. By stacking (or averaging) the sub-exposures, you average out most of the noise, leaving you with a nice clean image.
This is probably the best galaxy image I have taken to date.
So how does this work? Are you planning the photo session ahead and then just execute the plan? How much hands on is the process during the night. With 3 min exposures I guess your telescope has some kind of automatic tracking.
