How do you get such great detail??

[siddr20]

I have noticed so many lovely images on here with such great detail of the milkyway or other star shots etc.. with just a static tripod and single exposure.

Eg) MATT's latest pic posted in this section. Or pictures by AsignObservatory.

I have always been fascinated by outerspace and if i didnt spend so much on my marine tank i would have bought a telescope already.

For now heres a shot with my 40d and single exposure.
I still cant get as much detail as the shot Matt took.

Perhaps i got too much light pollution in my area?

f2.8, iso800, 30sec
http://i575.photobucket.com/albums/ss200/sidd-rishi/IMG_0592_resize1.jpg

f2.8, iso640, 30sec
http://i575.photobucket.com/albums/ss200/sidd-rishi/IMG_0606_resize1.jpg


Would love to know your secrets on how to get more detail.

Thanks,

[Catanonia]

Lots of shots such as you have already and stack them in DeepSkyStacker (google it, it is free aplication).

Then stack about 50 of them together and see what you get. Think HDR for Astrophotograhpy but without changing the exposure settings.

For deeper images of Deep Space Objects DSO's you need a scope and a motorised mount to get longer and longer exposures.

My images are normally 5 minutes on a motorised guided mount and I take about 3 - 4 hours worth of them and stack them in the same picture.


The image you have there is great, just need many many more of them :)

[siddr20]

Thanks for the quick response. I actually do have DSS, and i have processed three of the same images (different exposure tho) and its always turning the image to black n white???

Perhaps i need to process the same image with same exposure levels and stack them in DSS..

I will give it another try tomorrow night perhaps and see how i go..

Oh and btw the images posted above have had fair bit of editing done to bring out those colours.. If i take 50 images, would i have to process them all and then stack them in DSS?

[Nighthound]

The single most important thing for such short exposures is dark skies. A very important part of all deep sky photography but with short exposures, dark skies with no Moonlight should be first on the list.

Here are a couple that are only 2-3 minutes of exposure total but under fairly dark skies over the Atlantic.

http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y67/Nighthd/PS%20Gallery/milkywyrev3.jpg

http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y67/Nighthd/PS%20Gallery/mwwd07b.jpg

[Catanonia]

Try to take all the photo's with exactly the same settings and save them on disk.

Load them into DSS and use recommended setting and process them. You DO NOT need to process them individually before hand.

The image you get will normally be whiter / greyer, that is normal. Use the saturation controls in DSS to play with the image. I don't bother with this part.

I then load into Photoshop the Tiff, crop to get a picture and then play with the RGB levels first to balance them.

The use the total levels to light and darken appropiately.

Practice and more practice.


Also what Nighthound says is bang on. Shorter exposures by the very nature require darker skies to get the best results.




Thanks for the quick response. I actually do have DSS, and i have processed three of the same images (different exposure tho) and its always turning the image to black n white???

Perhaps i need to process the same image with same exposure levels and stack them in DSS..

I will give it another try tomorrow night perhaps and see how i go..

Oh and btw the images posted above have had fair bit of editing done to bring out those colours.. If i take 50 images, would i have to process them all and then stack them in DSS?

[cspratt]

What lens were you using?

[siddr20]

Nighthound - Thats exactly the type of shot i want to produce. Very jealous of you!! I think i should head into the country side one day and try this as there might be too much light pollution in my area. Thanks for that tip. Oh and how did you not get star trails forming at such long exposure? Did you have a proper mount?

Catanonia - I will do exactly what you mentioned next time. Thank you for that advice!!

Cspratt - I used a tamron 17-50f2.8 lens on a Canon 40d.

[timescapes.org]

Bottom line: you need darker skies and longer exposures to bring out the Milky Way. Whether the "longer exposure" is achieved through a faster lens, stacking, or literally by tripling your exposure time, one way or another, you need to expose longer in a darker sky.

[Jon Foster]

The sky around here is so polluted with light it's crazy. We will be heading up into northern Michigan later this month and I'm hoping for some clear dark sky's. I'm interested in getting some Milky Way shots if possible.

Jon.

[Nighthound]

Nighthound - Thats exactly the type of shot i want to produce. Very jealous of you!! I think i should head into the country side one day and try this as there might be too much light pollution in my area. Thanks for that tip. Oh and how did you not get star trails forming at such long exposure? Did you have a proper mount?

Catanonia - I will do exactly what you mentioned next time. Thank you for that advice!!

Cspratt - I used a tamron 17-50f2.8 lens on a Canon 40d.

I posted those on the fly on my lunch, I should have elaborated.

I had my DSLR piggy backed on a telescope. The first was on a LX200(fork mount) and the second was on a G-11(German equatorial mount). The first was a single 2 minute exposure and the second a total of 3 minutes stacking a pair of 1.5 minute exposures. As Tom mentioned length of exposure is also key. Stacking is a great way to increase signal(wanted data) and reduce noise in the process, but it will not create anything that isn't there, which can only be achieved by longer exposures. Dark skies give you the best conditions to optimize your efforts. Longer exposures mean you'll have to look into a means to track in order to go deeper and improve detail in your images. I shot the images above with the cheap 18-55mm Canon kit lens. Better glass would certainly help.

When using telescopes for deep-sky objects I use two on an equatorial mount these days, one at 407mm(w/focal reducer) and one at 800mm. I'm able to get 5 minute exposures at 407mm without autoguiding(assisting tracking accuracy with a second scope/camera mounted) and 5-6 min. at 800mm with autoguiding.

Heading out to darker skies is a great idea. Good luck, looking forward to seeing your results. Be safe.

[siddr20]

Thank you for your detailed reply.. It has helped a lot!!

Hopefully my next attempt will be much better and i will surely post it here :)

But thank you for the help :)