Image submissions

[admin]

Submit your images here for all of use to admire!
Max. file size is 512kb, JPEG preferred.
Links to services like Astrobin are encouraged! If using Astrobin, please link to the full card and not just the image.

[RC Rogers]

Greetings all - This is my first check in and I am truly enjoying the Star Tools processing package. I have been using it for about 2 months. The attached image is of M42/43/Running Man taken with a GSO 8 inch F4 astrograph an a Nikon D300 modified to accept Ha. The EQ6Pro mount is guided by a Nexstar camera attached to a Celestron 80 mm F7 guide scope piggybacked onto the GSO. 148 x 1 min images stacked in DSS and lightly processed in ST. I took some of the images 12-25-17 and the rest last night. After a couple of years of fooling around, this is my first semi-serious attempt at taking and processing astroimages. I love this software! Criticisms gratefully received.

best,

R

[RC Rogers]

Thie time with the image......

[Rkonrad]

Nice job and welcome to startools! Theres some nice detail and good separation of the background. I'm wondering about your colours though. The running man is supposed to be blue and m42 should have a balance of blue in it as well. If you're interested in my opinion feel free to post your original tiff and I would be happy to give it a go and show you what I mean.

Cheers

Richard

[cbecke]

I've had StarTools for all of a couple days now, so I'm sharing my first effort.

I didn't think it was possible to pick up the Horsehead nebula with an un-modded, crop-frame DSLR (Canon T5i) on an un-guided 8" SCT, at the end of my driveway under the streetlight ... but it turns out it is!

I took about 50 minutes of 30s exposures at ISO 3200 in RAW format, then another 10 minutes of darks. The next day, I tried to capture flats by pointing my scope at the blank wall of my garage and taking pics so the histogram was somewhere in the middle.

I processed in DSS using the recommended settings in another thread, letting DSS pick the best 85% of my data.

Quite pleased with the results, given the equipment I'm using, and always looking for tips and tricks to make it better. I'm looking forward to figuring out this tool so that the options are more intuitive and less black-magic!

- Chris
Twitter: @BeckePhysics

[cbecke]

Also, a take on the Orion Nebula with the same kit as previous post, but many fewer exposures.

[Troy Galebach]

Well I've had little time to get out and image.
Here is my best attempt at Jupiter taken at the end of June 2019.

Celestron 700 Mak
2X Barlow
Mallincam DS2.3 Plus Color Video Camera

1000 frames from the recorded .SER file, and stacked using Siril on Linux

[mcamilleri]

Hopefully my images improve with time, but here is an early attempt using StarTools. I usually do unguided EAA with no flats using an uncooled camera so obviously this will limit the quality. This image had some ugly hot pixels that the darks didn't tame, and StarTools didn't either. Windows Photo editor spot fix took care of those.

Here is C103, the Tarantula Nebula. Shot using a C9.25 at 1,440 mm unguided I think 30s subs, asi485mc camera. The framing is too tight - need a larger camera (just got a Canon 6D).

C103 Tarantula Nebula

C103 Stacked60_C103_30.0s_Bin2_485MC_gain100_20230323-235252_19.9C (2).jpg (547.24 KiB) Viewed 51087 times

[Mike in Rancho]

Hopefully my images improve with time, but here is an early attempt using StarTools. I usually do unguided EAA with no flats using an uncooled camera so obviously this will limit the quality. This image had some ugly hot pixels that the darks didn't tame, and StarTools didn't either. Windows Photo editor spot fix took care of those.

Here is C103, the Tarantula Nebula. Shot using a C9.25 at 1,440 mm unguided I think 30s subs, asi485mc camera. The framing is too tight - need a larger camera (just got a Canon 6D).

Hi Mcamilleri,

Nice start, especially if just EAA based. I believe another user here has a huge thread or many threads of EAA based acquisition then run through StarTools, so you might check those out.

I think this original post was maybe more of a forum announcement. No big deal, but you can create a new post within it for your individual image and then all the follow-on discussion will be within.

Nice choice of target, of course. Probably a few things to practice up on. Flats almost always help and will help ST get the best from your stack. Overall there's a little softness, but I can't quite tell if that's focus, the processing, or the walking noise. Eliminating that walking noise will help a lot, but until then in Denoise, StarTools has a function that aids in such directional noise reduction. Also there are options in Mask that may help identify and mask hot pixels for healing.

Let us know how you do. Off the top of my head I believe we have at least one user with a lot of Canon 6D experience who may be able to provide tips and pointers too.