Author Topic: First attempt at a galaxy  (Read 578 times)

Offline Jack16

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First attempt at a galaxy
« on: March 09, 2011, 08:41:01 PM »
M51 Whirlpool Galaxy


Offline Buzzard7

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Re: First attempt at a galaxy
« Reply #1 on: March 09, 2011, 08:54:41 PM »
Nice shot.
Was there a light source on the right?

Offline Jack16

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Re: First attempt at a galaxy
« Reply #2 on: March 09, 2011, 09:29:15 PM »
Most likely. I was in a friends backyard and the neighbor behind him has a bright motion sensor light. Of course they had to be outside and set it off. Lol.

Offline bcadoo

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Re: First attempt at a galaxy
« Reply #3 on: March 10, 2011, 01:55:20 AM »
How long of an exposure?
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Offline Wildcat1

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Re: First attempt at a galaxy
« Reply #4 on: March 10, 2011, 01:57:03 AM »
i'm guessing you used some kind of professional SLR?

you gotta tell me how you did that :O
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Offline saggs

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Re: First attempt at a galaxy
« Reply #5 on: March 10, 2011, 02:17:42 AM »
i'm guessing you used some kind of professional SLR?

you gotta tell me how you did that :O

Really good astrophotography is actually done with dedicated sensors make just for the job.  You can link up an SLR to a telescope with good results, but the best results come from pretty big CCD sensors with lower resolution (like 6mp) and no anti-alias filter and even built in cooling on some..  Those big lower resolution sensors mean higher sensitivity to light with less noise.

I would love to get into astrophotography, I have done quite a few star-trails images by stacking 30s exposures in PS.  But to really get into it further with a nice telescope, mount, tracker and sensor = $$$$$ that I don't have right now.

Anyway, a very nice image for your first attempt, please do share what gear you used, I'm interested as well?


Offline mbailey

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Re: First attempt at a galaxy
« Reply #6 on: March 10, 2011, 05:47:47 AM »
Nice Pic Jack  :aok

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« Last Edit: March 10, 2011, 05:56:07 AM by mbailey »
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Offline mechanic

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Re: First attempt at a galaxy
« Reply #7 on: March 10, 2011, 05:52:43 AM »
that is amazing, well done.

any info on what you used would be great.
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Offline Kermit de frog

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Re: First attempt at a galaxy
« Reply #8 on: March 10, 2011, 08:08:05 AM »
WOW!

Absolutely beautiful.


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Offline Jack16

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Re: First attempt at a galaxy
« Reply #9 on: March 10, 2011, 09:54:19 AM »
Thanks guys! :D

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Exposure: 33 images x 30 seconds each @ 800 ISO

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« Last Edit: March 10, 2011, 09:57:07 AM by Jack16 »

Offline mbailey

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Re: First attempt at a galaxy
« Reply #10 on: March 11, 2011, 03:13:20 PM »
Very cool, Im N of Quakertown, and grew up on Lake Nockamixon. Howdy Neighbor  :aok

WG part of my territory for work, nice area
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Offline CptTrips

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Re: First attempt at a galaxy
« Reply #11 on: March 11, 2011, 03:31:22 PM »
M51 Whirlpool Galaxy

(Image removed from quote.)

Good job Jack.  Thats a tough target.

Is that amp glow on the left you think?  Have you tried some dark frame subtraction?

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Offline Jack16

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Re: First attempt at a galaxy
« Reply #12 on: March 11, 2011, 11:16:08 PM »
Very cool, Im N of Quakertown, and grew up on Lake Nockamixon. Howdy Neighbor  :aok

WG part of my territory for work, nice area

Howdy!! :D

Good job Jack.  Thats a tough target.

Is that amp glow on the left you think?  Have you tried some dark frame subtraction?

Clear Skies,
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I stacked with that Deep Sky Stacker program and I did use darks. I tried editing the final .TIF file in photoshop this time using the channel mixer. I'm not sure if that glow was caused by the neighbor's motion sensor light or because it was the way I was using the channel mixer in PS.

Would you like to try messing with the JPS/RAW images again?


Offline Tupac

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Re: First attempt at a galaxy
« Reply #13 on: March 12, 2011, 12:11:31 AM »
Wow! That really puts things into perspective! Nice shot!
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