Help with ST & My Subs?

Questions and answers about processing in StarTools and how to accomplish certain tasks.
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Johnny
Posts: 1
Joined: Wed Sep 07, 2016 11:05 am

Help with ST & My Subs?

Post by Johnny »

Hi. Last week I downloaded ST and am having difficulty with producing decent images.
I shoot in a white zone so have bad LP. My subs are of M31:
Canon (un-modded) T2i
Sky Watcher 80mm APO on EQ6 mount - Unguided.
Subs - .30" at 50 subs @ ISO 1600
DSS Stacking - Flats, Darks And Bias added to DSS stacking. As suggested I have No Calibration or White Balanced Set. Tiff was saved as EMBED not APPLIED.

The resulting TIFF is blown way out on AutoDev and I have tried numerous times to get a good image in ST. I am a beginner so have been going by adjustments I read about. I know that for my area I need more subs and longer exposures.
Two weeks ago, I shot M31 with just DSLR on a tripod as I was waiting for scope/mount to be delivered. I wasn't able to process the image in ST very well. I contacted Ivo and he graciously did it for me. I was really surprised at the outcome. It was pretty good.
Would appreciate if someone could take a crack at my TIFF in ST. Am VERY curious as to how this could come out. My concern is that is the image poor because of bad LP, bad Data, bad ME...or all of the above.
Dropbox link:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/o67qpiblsmxxw ... d.TIF?dl=0

Thanks for any help.
alacant
Posts: 211
Joined: Mon Jan 25, 2016 7:03 am

Re: Help with ST & My Subs?

Post by alacant »

very quick Autodev Crop Dev HTH
M31 for ST Embed.jpg
M31 for ST Embed.jpg (159.31 KiB) Viewed 3462 times
almcl
Posts: 263
Joined: Wed Jan 21, 2015 7:15 pm
Location: Shropshire. UK

Re: Help with ST & My Subs?

Post by almcl »

I don't think your set up is so bad, I got this from your tiff file and it's a lot better than my first efforts, so well done:
M31 quick.jpg
M31 quick.jpg (162.55 KiB) Viewed 3458 times
but there are some things you can do to improve matters. Take some flats, they will help with the dust bunnies and any vignetting. If you can orient your camera at 90 degrees so that the long axis is along the galaxy's long axis, it may prove easier to crop and edit. You have some fairly vicious gradients which may be the light pollution you mention and if this caused by sodium lights (orange) you might consider a light pollution filter.

Here's the image in its post Autodev state,but before any other processing. Don't be frightened when you see one like this, a lot of it is treatable:
M31 cropped and wiped.jpg
M31 cropped and wiped.jpg (209.74 KiB) Viewed 3458 times
Skywatcher 190MN, ASI 2600 or astro modded Canon 700d, guided by OAG, ASI120, PHD2
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