[astro] NGC3372 Eta Carinae Nebula

[Troy Piggins]

G'day,

Thought I'd post my latest astrophoto. Quite pleased with the
way this one turned out. Taken with my 40D attached to my ED80
(600mm focal length, f/7.5) telescope. I took 15x4 minute
exposures, ISO800, and stacked them together to reduce noise and
increase signal to noise ratio. Also take "dark frames", ie put
cap over scope and take same exposure length, same ISO, so you're
just capturing noise, and this is then subtracted from the other
frames to reduce noise. Kind of like the built-in in camera
noise reduction, but manually done.

http://tinyurl.com/NGC3372

It's the Eta Carinae Nebula.

Eta Carinae is the bright star (actually, it's a binary system -
2 stars locked together gravitationally) in the lighter/brighter
part of the nebula. It's a massive star and astronomers
anticipate it will go supernova very soon (in astronomical
timelines, anyway). If and when it does, I understand it will be
the brightest star in the sky, and possibly even visible in
daylight.

Sadly for those in the Northern Hemisphere, it's pretty close to
the South Celestial Pole, so those north of about 30 degrees
latitude can't view it.

Comments/critiques welcome.

[Jeff R.]

Post by Troy Piggins
G'day,
http://tinyurl.com/NGC3372
Comments/critiques welcome.
--
Troy Piggins

Nice one, Troy.
It's a lovely region, 'round the Cross.
I love the way a short exposure (even a minute) brings up so much stuff you
can't see by eye.

Your shot?
Nice round, pin-point stars.
Nicely stacked.

Auto or hand guided?
How wide do you reckon your shot would be?

--
Jeff R.

[Troy Piggins]

Post by Jeff R.

Post by Troy Piggins
G'day,
http://tinyurl.com/NGC3372
Comments/critiques welcome.

Nice one, Troy.
It's a lovely region, 'round the Cross.
I love the way a short exposure (even a minute) brings up so much stuff you
can't see by eye.

Sure is. The colours really come out. That's why I took up this
hobby. This time consuming, bank account sucking hobby.

Post by Jeff R.
Your shot?
Nice round, pin-point stars.
Nicely stacked.
Auto or hand guided?

Auto guided. I have a guide scope and camera piggy-backing on
top of the imaging scope.

Post by Jeff R.
How wide do you reckon your shot would be?

It's about 2 degree field of view. Is that what you mean?

[Jeff R.]

Post by Troy Piggins

Post by Jeff R.
How wide do you reckon your shot would be?

It's about 2 degree field of view. Is that what you mean?

Yup.
Ta.

JR

[Alan Browne]

Post by Troy Piggins

Post by Jeff R.

Post by Troy Piggins
G'day,
http://tinyurl.com/NGC3372
Comments/critiques welcome.

Nice one, Troy.
It's a lovely region, 'round the Cross.
I love the way a short exposure (even a minute) brings up so much stuff you
can't see by eye.

Sure is. The colours really come out. That's why I took up this
hobby. This time consuming, bank account sucking hobby.

A friend of mine stands in a cold shower with a fan blowing while he
shreds $100 bills.

Or goes sailing.

Same thing.

[Troy Piggins]

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Post by Troy Piggins

Post by Jeff R.
I love the way a short exposure (even a minute) brings up so much stuff you
can't see by eye.

Sure is. The colours really come out. That's why I took up this
hobby. This time consuming, bank account sucking hobby.

A friend of mine stands in a cold shower with a fan blowing while he
shreds $100 bills.
Or goes sailing.
Same thing.

True dat. :)

[John McWilliams]

Post by Troy Piggins

[---=| Quote block shrinked by t-prot: 13 lines snipped |=---]

Post by Troy Piggins

Post by Jeff R.
I love the way a short exposure (even a minute) brings up so much stuff you
can't see by eye.

Sure is. The colours really come out. That's why I took up this
hobby. This time consuming, bank account sucking hobby.

A friend of mine stands in a cold shower with a fan blowing while he
shreds $100 bills.
Or goes sailing.
Same thing.

True dat. :)

MUCH better visuals while sailing, and one is generally not wearing
foul weather gear in the shower..... and the old saw applies more to
racing than, say, a nice cruise in the Bahamas.....

[Elliott Roper]

Post by Troy Piggins
G'day,
Thought I'd post my latest astrophoto. Quite pleased with the
way this one turned out. Taken with my 40D attached to my ED80
(600mm focal length, f/7.5) telescope. I took 15x4 minute
exposures, ISO800, and stacked them together to reduce noise and
increase signal to noise ratio. Also take "dark frames", ie put
cap over scope and take same exposure length, same ISO, so you're
just capturing noise, and this is then subtracted from the other
frames to reduce noise. Kind of like the built-in in camera
noise reduction, but manually done.
http://tinyurl.com/NGC3372
It's the Eta Carinae Nebula.
Eta Carinae is the bright star (actually, it's a binary system -
2 stars locked together gravitationally) in the lighter/brighter
part of the nebula. It's a massive star and astronomers
anticipate it will go supernova very soon (in astronomical
timelines, anyway). If and when it does, I understand it will be
the brightest star in the sky, and possibly even visible in
daylight.
Sadly for those in the Northern Hemisphere, it's pretty close to
the South Celestial Pole, so those north of about 30 degrees
latitude can't view it.

G'day
Bewdy mate! There are professional shots of it on the web that are
worse. I think your's is up there with the image shown on Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carina_Nebula
Loading Image...
(pretending to be Hubble but not)

[Troy Piggins]

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Post by Troy Piggins
daylight.
Sadly for those in the Northern Hemisphere, it's pretty close to
the South Celestial Pole, so those north of about 30 degrees
latitude can't view it.

G'day
Bewdy mate! There are professional shots of it on the web that are
worse. I think your's is up there with the image shown on Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carina_Nebula
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/2b/NGC_3372.jpg
(pretending to be Hubble but not)

Wow! Cheers mate. Thanks for the props! To be fair, the
equipment and software we have accessible to us today has come a
long way in a very short time, so it's much easier to produce
better images in this day and age. We're very fortunate. I
can't imagine what it must've been like for the old school
astrophotographers hand-guiding and using film cameras.

[Jeff R.]

"Troy Piggins" <usenet-***@piggo.com> wrote in message news:***@usenet.piggo.com...
.... I

Post by Troy Piggins
can't imagine what it must've been like for the old school
astrophotographers hand-guiding and using film cameras.
--
Troy Piggins

Hnh...

How much time yer got, sonny?

:-)

--
Jeff R.
(who maxxed out at about 30 minutes guiding - along with the film..)

[Troy Piggins]

Post by Jeff R.
... I

Post by Troy Piggins
can't imagine what it must've been like for the old school
astrophotographers hand-guiding and using film cameras.

Hnh...
How much time yer got, sonny?
:-)

:) I don't envy how frustrating it must've been. Even now
there's different frustrations. The night I took this was the
first outing in ages where the clouds stayed away, the guiding
software and mount all played nicely for me all night, the dew
heaters managed to keep dew off the lenses all night despite
everything else dripping wet, the notebook didn't crash or lock
up, and the focuser didn't shift over a period of an hour.

[Jeff R.]

Post by Troy Piggins

Post by Jeff R.
... I

Post by Troy Piggins
can't imagine what it must've been like for the old school
astrophotographers hand-guiding and using film cameras.

Hnh...
How much time yer got, sonny?
:-)

:) I don't envy how frustrating it must've been.

Not *that* frustrating - other than weather and 747s and neighbours with
backyard spotlights, that is.
If anything, the wait between exposure and viewing the results added a
certain excitement - anticipation - to the process.
As I mentioned earlier, I really enjoy the revelation of seing things on the
film (or, for that matter, the PC) that are just not visible at the
eyepiece.
The nuisance of reciprocity failure is largely offset by the lack of
long-exposure noise.

The frustrations?
My eyesight would go bung after about ten minutes of guiding. I couldn't
focus - stars would disappear etc. etc. (night-adaption notwithstanding).
Just tiredness after concentrating so hard, I guess.
Sitting at the eyepiece carefully twiddling the RA and Dec knobs (I never
did manage to polar align all that accurately) for over ten minutes ensures
cramps and inaccessible itches -AND- I don't know how they do it, but the
insects around my place always seem to know when my hands are occupied and I
can't swat them. Had spiders doing a mambo on my neck while I'm frozen in
place.

But then - when the neg comes out of the fixer, and you see the glorious
array of black dots in all the right places...

...more fun than digital, I reckon.

(but that doesn't mean I'm going back to film)

--
Jeff R.

[Troy Piggins]

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Post by Troy Piggins

Post by Jeff R.
How much time yer got, sonny?
:-)

:) I don't envy how frustrating it must've been.

Not *that* frustrating - other than weather and 747s and neighbours with
backyard spotlights, that is.
If anything, the wait between exposure and viewing the results added a
certain excitement - anticipation - to the process.
As I mentioned earlier, I really enjoy the revelation of seing things on the
film (or, for that matter, the PC) that are just not visible at the eyepiece.
The nuisance of reciprocity failure is largely offset by the lack of
long-exposure noise.
The frustrations?
My eyesight would go bung after about ten minutes of guiding. I couldn't
focus - stars would disappear etc. etc. (night-adaption notwithstanding).
Just tiredness after concentrating so hard, I guess.
Sitting at the eyepiece carefully twiddling the RA and Dec knobs (I never
did manage to polar align all that accurately) for over ten minutes ensures
cramps and inaccessible itches -AND- I don't know how they do it, but the
insects around my place always seem to know when my hands are occupied and I
can't swat them. Had spiders doing a mambo on my neck while I'm frozen in
place.
But then - when the neg comes out of the fixer, and you see the glorious
array of black dots in all the right places...
...more fun than digital, I reckon.
(but that doesn't mean I'm going back to film)

Good stuff, mate. I'd love to see some of your work some time.

[Jeff R.]

Post by Troy Piggins
Good stuff, mate. I'd love to see some of your work some time.

Nothing to write home to mother about, but:

http://www.faxmentis.org/html/science.html#index

is the only stuff I have online.

:-)

--
Jeff R.

[Troy Piggins]

Post by Jeff R.

Post by Troy Piggins
Good stuff, mate. I'd love to see some of your work some time.

http://www.faxmentis.org/html/science.html#index
is the only stuff I have online.
:-)

Cool. Had a quick look, will go back tonight and have a more
detailed look around. Some good stuff in there. Thanks for
sharing.

[Doug McDonald]

Post by Troy Piggins
Wow! Cheers mate. Thanks for the props! To be fair, the
equipment and software we have accessible to us today has come a
long way in a very short time, so it's much easier to produce
better images in this day and age. We're very fortunate. I
can't imagine what it must've been like for the old school
astrophotographers hand-guiding and using film cameras.

I and one of my grad students tried it in the middle 90's
using hypered film. He did the guiding by hand.

That's not easy.

Stacked 90 exposures of the Horsehead.

Stacked photographically.

Doug McDonald

[DanP]

Post by Troy Piggins
G'day,
Thought I'd post my latest astrophoto.  Quite pleased with the
way this one turned out.  Taken with my 40D attached to my ED80
(600mm focal length, f/7.5) telescope.  I took 15x4 minute
exposures, ISO800, and stacked them together to reduce noise and
increase signal to noise ratio.  Also take "dark frames", ie put
cap over scope and take same exposure length, same ISO, so you're
just capturing noise, and this is then subtracted from the other
frames to reduce noise.  Kind of like the built-in in camera
noise reduction, but manually done.
http://tinyurl.com/NGC3372
It's the Eta Carinae Nebula.  
Eta Carinae is the bright star (actually, it's a binary system -
2 stars locked together gravitationally) in the lighter/brighter
part of the nebula. It's a massive star and astronomers
anticipate it will go supernova very soon (in astronomical
timelines, anyway). If and when it does, I understand it will be
the brightest star in the sky, and possibly even visible in
daylight.
Sadly for those in the Northern Hemisphere, it's pretty close to
the South Celestial Pole, so those north of about 30 degrees
latitude can't view it.
Comments/critiques welcome.
--
Troy Piggins

Thanks.
Keep posting.


DanP

[John McWilliams]

Post by Troy Piggins
G'day,
Thought I'd post my latest astrophoto. Quite pleased with the
way this one turned out. Taken with my 40D attached to my ED80
(600mm focal length, f/7.5) telescope. I took 15x4 minute
exposures, ISO800, and stacked them together to reduce noise and
increase signal to noise ratio. Also take "dark frames", ie put
cap over scope and take same exposure length, same ISO, so you're
just capturing noise, and this is then subtracted from the other
frames to reduce noise. Kind of like the built-in in camera
noise reduction, but manually done.
http://tinyurl.com/NGC3372

Superb shot, Troy. Are these done in RAW? Is setting exposure done by
trial or some guide?

[Troy Piggins]

[---=| Quote block shrinked by t-prot: 8 lines snipped |=---]

Post by Troy Piggins
just capturing noise, and this is then subtracted from the other
frames to reduce noise. Kind of like the built-in in camera
noise reduction, but manually done.
http://tinyurl.com/NGC3372

Superb shot, Troy. Are these done in RAW? Is setting exposure done by
trial or some guide?

Thanks mate. I shoot everything in RAW. I've recently started
capturing using software that controls the camera, downloads
straight to the notebook. It's effectively RAW, but saves the
files as FITS files.

Exposure is a bit more trial and error. For my 40D I start out
with ISO800 and 4min exposures. But if it's got really bright
areas or stars, like the Orion Nebula, you might shoot some
shorter exposures too and do a bit of HDR type processing. It's
tricky, because too long and the stars blow out too much, and too
short and you don't capture the nebulosity.

[Paul Furman]

Post by Troy Piggins
G'day,
Thought I'd post my latest astrophoto. Quite pleased with the
way this one turned out. Taken with my 40D attached to my ED80
(600mm focal length, f/7.5) telescope.

Very nice! I've only barely looked into what's needed to get into astro
stuff. I see that's a relatively short (for a telescope) non-mirror type
lens. Is it usable for on-planet photography? Were you able to do that
from an urban area?

Post by Troy Piggins
I took 15x4 minute
exposures, ISO800, and stacked them together to reduce noise and
increase signal to noise ratio. Also take "dark frames", ie put
cap over scope and take same exposure length, same ISO, so you're
just capturing noise, and this is then subtracted from the other
frames to reduce noise. Kind of like the built-in in camera
noise reduction, but manually done.
http://tinyurl.com/NGC3372
It's the Eta Carinae Nebula.
Eta Carinae is the bright star (actually, it's a binary system -
2 stars locked together gravitationally) in the lighter/brighter
part of the nebula. It's a massive star and astronomers
anticipate it will go supernova very soon (in astronomical
timelines, anyway). If and when it does, I understand it will be
the brightest star in the sky, and possibly even visible in
daylight.
Sadly for those in the Northern Hemisphere, it's pretty close to
the South Celestial Pole, so those north of about 30 degrees
latitude can't view it.
Comments/critiques welcome.

[Troy Piggins]

Post by Paul Furman

Post by Troy Piggins
G'day,
Thought I'd post my latest astrophoto. Quite pleased with the
way this one turned out. Taken with my 40D attached to my ED80
(600mm focal length, f/7.5) telescope.

Very nice! I've only barely looked into what's needed to get into astro
stuff. I see that's a relatively short (for a telescope) non-mirror type
lens. Is it usable for on-planet photography? Were you able to do that
from an urban area?

Thanks mate.

Yeah, that's correct. It's a relatively cheap refractor
telescope. Probably the most recommended beginner's scope to
start out astroimaging with. At 600mm focal length and 80mm
aperture, it's not really powerful enough for planetary imaging.
For that you need much higher magnifications - those guys are
using equivalent focal lengths of 5,000-10,000mm. You get these
focal lengths by using reflectors like Schmidt-Cassegrain or
Newtonian scopes and adding barlows or powermates to them which
increase the magnifications by 2x-5x or thereabouts.

I took this from my in-laws' place. It's a semi-rural area. Not
truly dark skies, but much better than my place in terms of light
pollution.

[Russell D.]

Post by Troy Piggins
G'day,
Thought I'd post my latest astrophoto. Quite pleased with the
way this one turned out. Taken with my 40D attached to my ED80
(600mm focal length, f/7.5) telescope. I took 15x4 minute
exposures, ISO800, and stacked them together to reduce noise and
increase signal to noise ratio. Also take "dark frames", ie put
cap over scope and take same exposure length, same ISO, so you're
just capturing noise, and this is then subtracted from the other
frames to reduce noise. Kind of like the built-in in camera
noise reduction, but manually done.
http://tinyurl.com/NGC3372
It's the Eta Carinae Nebula.
Eta Carinae is the bright star (actually, it's a binary system -
2 stars locked together gravitationally) in the lighter/brighter
part of the nebula. It's a massive star and astronomers
anticipate it will go supernova very soon (in astronomical
timelines, anyway). If and when it does, I understand it will be
the brightest star in the sky, and possibly even visible in
daylight.
Sadly for those in the Northern Hemisphere, it's pretty close to
the South Celestial Pole, so those north of about 30 degrees
latitude can't view it.
Comments/critiques welcome.

Well, I sit about smack dab on top of 40 degrees north so I appreciate
this view of your part of the sky.

That's really nice work, Troy. Thanks for sharing.

Russell

[Alan Browne]

Post by Troy Piggins
G'day,
Thought I'd post my latest astrophoto. Quite pleased with the
way this one turned out. Taken with my 40D attached to my ED80
(600mm focal length, f/7.5) telescope. I took 15x4 minute
exposures, ISO800, and stacked them together to reduce noise and
increase signal to noise ratio. Also take "dark frames", ie put
cap over scope and take same exposure length, same ISO, so you're
just capturing noise, and this is then subtracted from the other
frames to reduce noise. Kind of like the built-in in camera
noise reduction, but manually done.
http://tinyurl.com/NGC3372
It's the Eta Carinae Nebula.
Eta Carinae is the bright star (actually, it's a binary system -
2 stars locked together gravitationally) in the lighter/brighter
part of the nebula. It's a massive star and astronomers
anticipate it will go supernova very soon (in astronomical
timelines, anyway). If and when it does, I understand it will be
the brightest star in the sky, and possibly even visible in
daylight.
Sadly for those in the Northern Hemisphere, it's pretty close to
the South Celestial Pole, so those north of about 30 degrees
latitude can't view it.
Comments/critiques welcome.

Very nice - I'd like to see the full sized image.

[Troy Piggins]

[---=| Quote block shrinked by t-prot: 25 lines snipped |=---]

Post by Troy Piggins
the South Celestial Pole, so those north of about 30 degrees
latitude can't view it.
Comments/critiques welcome.

Very nice - I'd like to see the full sized image.

1600px 800kB big enough? :)

Loading Image...

[Alan Browne]

Post by Troy Piggins

[---=| Quote block shrinked by t-prot: 25 lines snipped |=---]

Post by Troy Piggins
the South Celestial Pole, so those north of about 30 degrees
latitude can't view it.
Comments/critiques welcome.

Very nice - I'd like to see the full sized image.

1600px 800kB big enough? :)
http://piggo.com/~troy/photos/2010/2010_04_10/NGC3372.jpg

No. ;-)

[Edward Heston]

Great job - and you know what you're doing. I would have liked to have seen
an actual pixel crop of one of the areas so we can see the pixel detail that
you obtained. Keep going & keep posting =)

Post by Troy Piggins
G'day,
Thought I'd post my latest astrophoto. Quite pleased with the
way this one turned out. Taken with my 40D attached to my ED80
(600mm focal length, f/7.5) telescope. I took 15x4 minute
exposures, ISO800, and stacked them together to reduce noise and
increase signal to noise ratio. Also take "dark frames", ie put
cap over scope and take same exposure length, same ISO, so you're
just capturing noise, and this is then subtracted from the other
frames to reduce noise. Kind of like the built-in in camera
noise reduction, but manually done.
http://tinyurl.com/NGC3372
It's the Eta Carinae Nebula.
Eta Carinae is the bright star (actually, it's a binary system -
2 stars locked together gravitationally) in the lighter/brighter
part of the nebula. It's a massive star and astronomers
anticipate it will go supernova very soon (in astronomical
timelines, anyway). If and when it does, I understand it will be
the brightest star in the sky, and possibly even visible in
daylight.
Sadly for those in the Northern Hemisphere, it's pretty close to
the South Celestial Pole, so those north of about 30 degrees
latitude can't view it.
Comments/critiques welcome.
--
Troy Piggins

[Troy Piggins]

Post by Edward Heston
Great job - and you know what you're doing. I would have liked to have seen
an actual pixel crop of one of the areas so we can see the pixel detail that
you obtained. Keep going & keep posting =)
[---=| TOFU protection by t-prot: 32 lines snipped |=---]

Thanks mate. It may /appear/ like I know what I'm doing, but
theory and practice are not always aligned. ;)

The 1600px wide version is the biggest I have for you at the
moment:

http://piggo.com/~troy/photos/2010/2010_04_10/NGC3372.jpg

[Alan Browne]

By the way, North Americans, NOVA begins at 20:00 on most PBS stations
tonight with part 2 of "Hunting the Edge of Space: The Ever Expanding
Universe". Expect lots of great Hubble images ...

Missed part 1 - have to wait for it to come around again ... (PBS blocks
internet viewing outside of the US...).

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/

Post by Troy Piggins
G'day,
Thought I'd post my latest astrophoto. Quite pleased with the
way this one turned out. Taken with my 40D attached to my ED80
(600mm focal length, f/7.5) telescope. I took 15x4 minute
exposures, ISO800, and stacked them together to reduce noise and
increase signal to noise ratio. Also take "dark frames", ie put
cap over scope and take same exposure length, same ISO, so you're
just capturing noise, and this is then subtracted from the other
frames to reduce noise. Kind of like the built-in in camera
noise reduction, but manually done.
http://tinyurl.com/NGC3372
It's the Eta Carinae Nebula.
Eta Carinae is the bright star (actually, it's a binary system -
2 stars locked together gravitationally) in the lighter/brighter
part of the nebula. It's a massive star and astronomers
anticipate it will go supernova very soon (in astronomical
timelines, anyway). If and when it does, I understand it will be
the brightest star in the sky, and possibly even visible in
daylight.
Sadly for those in the Northern Hemisphere, it's pretty close to
the South Celestial Pole, so those north of about 30 degrees
latitude can't view it.
Comments/critiques welcome.

[Mark McDougall]

Post by Troy Piggins
Comments/critiques welcome.

Beautiful mate!

Can't wait until I retire - going to move out of the city, build myself an
"observatory" and spend cold winter nights shivering my a** off taking these
sorts of photos!

Regards,

[Troy Piggins]

Post by Mark McDougall

Post by Troy Piggins
Comments/critiques welcome.

Beautiful mate!
Can't wait until I retire - going to move out of the city, build myself an
"observatory" and spend cold winter nights shivering my a** off taking these
sorts of photos!

Cheers, thanks mate. It's a pretty awesome hobby. I'd love an
observatory. Pretty big de-motivator is having to pull out all
the gear, move it, set it up, balance, align etc, then pack it
all up again at the end of night. Would be great to just have to
close the roof and shut the door and walk out. One day... :)

[Ray Fischer]

Post by Mark McDougall

Post by Troy Piggins
Comments/critiques welcome.

Beautiful mate!
Can't wait until I retire - going to move out of the city, build myself an
"observatory" and spend cold winter nights shivering my a** off taking these
sorts of photos!

Don't really much need to. With an auto-guider and a computer to
control the camera (and telescope) you can do it all from inside the
house.

Not quite the same, though, as standing out under the stars.

[Noons]

Post by Troy Piggins
increase signal to noise ratio. Also take "dark frames", ie put
cap over scope and take same exposure length, same ISO, so you're
just capturing noise, and this is then subtracted from the other
frames to reduce noise. Kind of like the built-in in camera
noise reduction, but manually done.
http://tinyurl.com/NGC3372

Excellent stuff, Piggo!
What software do you use for the composite and de-noising?
A friend of mine has asked me for info on this.

[Troy Piggins]

Post by Noons

Post by Troy Piggins
increase signal to noise ratio. Also take "dark frames", ie put
cap over scope and take same exposure length, same ISO, so you're
just capturing noise, and this is then subtracted from the other
frames to reduce noise. Kind of like the built-in in camera
noise reduction, but manually done.
http://tinyurl.com/NGC3372

Excellent stuff, Piggo!
What software do you use for the composite and de-noising?
A friend of mine has asked me for info on this.

Thanks mate. I'm using Nebulosity 2 for image capture,
calibration, aligning, and stacking.

http://www.stark-labs.com/nebulosity.html

You can do more with it, but I prefer to use Photoshop from there
on - levels, curves, touchups etc.

[Noons]

Post by Troy Piggins

Post by Noons

Post by Troy Piggins
increase signal to noise ratio. Also take "dark frames", ie put
cap over scope and take same exposure length, same ISO, so you're
just capturing noise, and this is then subtracted from the other
frames to reduce noise. Kind of like the built-in in camera
noise reduction, but manually done.
http://tinyurl.com/NGC3372

Excellent stuff, Piggo!
What software do you use for the composite and de-noising?
A friend of mine has asked me for info on this.

Thanks mate. I'm using Nebulosity 2 for image capture,
calibration, aligning, and stacking.
http://www.stark-labs.com/nebulosity.html
You can do more with it, but I prefer to use Photoshop from there
on - levels, curves, touchups etc.

Ta muchly! Will pass it along.