affinity photo astronomy photos

[Guest]

I am still learning my way through AP and have started re-working some of my old images which are now much improved vs my old editing techniques in PS

Here is my 1st main attempt using AP

This is IC5070 Pelican nebula in Cygnus tone mapped using Sii as Red, Ha as green and Oiii as Blue.  9x5min each colour channel.  Stacked and aligned in Astroart, Initial stretching and development in Startools then colour re-combination, balancing, additional tone mapping and sharpening in AP.  BTW - AP did these final stages in a fraction of the time PS takes.

Clear Skies

[AffinityJules]

Is this a photograph that you took using a telescope? A telescopic lens wouldn't penetrate that far would it?

Either way, great picture.

[Guest]

Thanks for your comment affinity jules

This was taken with a 500mm scope over several hours using a mono camera (4/3 format) and 3 different filters.  To give you an idea of scale a full moon would fit into this image about 4 times.

The filters give what is known as the Hubble Palette which DSLR's cannot reproduce, Sii is nearly infrared, Ha is deep red and Oiii turquoise blue, hence why I map Sii to Red and Ha to Green and Oiii to Blue in false colour.

If you did this with a DSLR you would have to take about 100x 5minute guided exposures (clouds permitting in the UK).  The final image would be very red due to the levels of Ha and Sii in this nebula.

A final DSLR image would look similar to this Ha Colour toned image but with more colour in the stars

 

[Guest]

Still learning but fairly happy with this shot of NGC2237

Hubble palette image with just 3 hours of data on 360mm telescope.

[Guest]

I have rarely been able to get the central cores of galaxies to show much detail - Always blown out.

Have now been using the Tone Mapping persona and wow - great results better than anything I have achieved previously.

The more I try AP the more I like it and love what it can achieve.

This one is of M82 Bode's Galaxy - the luminance file was 25x2min at 14bit with sigma adding to produce a 16bit output.  Nearly all the processing through AP tone mapping except for de-noise and colour balance.

[AffinityJules]

Simply wonderful.

. . .and you should be pleased with all of these. 

[Totte]

Not sure if it falls into the "astronomy" category, but this was taken with my GoPro Hero4  I caught a falling star, so I hope that counts

 

 

[Guest]

WOW!  That's a bright one.

Was this at night?

Whatever - counts in my book:)

[peter]

It counts! Stargazing, falling or not.

[Totte]

18 hours ago, Dr Astronomy said:

WOW!  That's a bright one.

Was this at night?

Whatever - counts in my book:)

Ye, it's probably taken past midnight. However, I do live quite far north on the map, we don't really get that pitch black as the south. But I guess the over-exposed moon does help a lot with the lightning..

[Char_Zard13]

dude im still confused on how you shot this even though u explained but just... wow

[Guest]

Thanks to the online videos my technique in AP is improving especially in removing noise (live de-noise filter) in my astro photos.

All processing in AP except stacking, gradient removal and conversion from FITS format.

Q - does AP have any form of gradient removal?

This is one of M51 (Whirlpool Galaxy) from last night.  As the clouds rolled in early I only managed 10 minutes each of R, G and B yet AA still brings out the colours (other packages have never managed this).  The luminance was 45 minutes total

Clear Skies

[zuperblue]

On 4/15/2018 at 1:16 PM, Dr Astronomy said:

Thanks to the online videos my technique in AP is improving especially in removing noise (live de-noise filter) in my astro photos.

All processing in AP except stacking, gradient removal and conversion from FITS format.

Q - does AP have any form of gradient removal?

This is one of M51 (Whirlpool Galaxy) from last night.  As the clouds rolled in early I only managed 10 minutes each of R, G and B yet AA still brings out the colours (other packages have never managed this).  The luminance was 45 minutes total

Clear Skies

love this, my attempt is pitifull compaird

[Guest]

I have seen several threads on capturing star images and the issues around this with DSLR's.

With the milky way starting to move into a good position in the UK I thought I would post a method.  I should point out that I don't normally image the heavens with DSLR (high spec astronomy cameras normally) but tried last night for some fun.

This is a method for tripod and no tracking

1.  Divide 500 by your focal length of lens to get maximum exposure time before the stars stretch (I used F2.8 at 28mm) so 17.85 seconds. (For milky way try a 10mm lens)

NB As I use a Pentax K-S2 the pixels are quite small (20mb APS-C) so I use about 2/3rds of that exposure time - C10 Seconds

2  Focus on a distant subject in daylight then set the camera to manual focus - lock the focus if you can and don't be tempted to move it.  DSLR's don't like focusing on stars!

3  When dark point the camera at the milky way (or other target) Set ISO to about 800 and exposure as calculated above and aperture wide open - capture in RAW and turn of electronic noise reduction

4  Use a remote shutter release as you do not want to move the camera at all when taking images - I use timer as it also locks the mirror up, mirror shake can be a killer

5  Now take about 25 images - each will look black and the histogram shifted way over to the left - don't panic that's how it should be - I lost 3 images last night due to aircraft which is why I take so many

Processing

1  You will need to align all images either manually or with Astroart, nebulosity, deep sky stacker etc...  Unfortunately AP isn't that good at aligning star images

2  Either stack them externally or bring the aligned images into AP as a group with median combine applied to the group

3  This is why we take lots of images

Noise in a single image high mag

Noise in a median combine image of 22 images aligned and stacked high mag

4  Rasterise the stack

5  The final part is cleaning up the image -

Leave the colour alone until the final stage and make changes as below these will change from night to night and camera to camera

Apply a moderate levels adjustment first, then curves for some contrast, now remove any vignetting and finally HSL If necessary you can also de-fringe

You are aiming for an image similar to that below - lots of stars and not quite a black background, If you can reproduce this type of star field you can easily image the milky way

 

 

Why not try it out and be ready for the milky way in a month or so (Milky way is currently low in the sky until about 2am !)

Clear skies

 

 

[Guest]

This is a rework in AP of an old summer favourite of mine - NGC7000 (North American Nebula) in Hubble palette where Red is Sii, Green is Ha and Blue is Oiii

All working in AP except alignment.

 

[Guest]

M57 (Ring Nebula) from night of 19/5/18

The more I use AP for image processing the more I love it

Hope you like it - can you find the very faint small spiral galaxy IC1296 just to the left of the main nebula?

[zuperblue]

hi this is what ime trying to do also, great shot by the way clear skys

[AffinityJules]

Apart from all these 'deep field' images - which are remarkable in themselves, do you ever train your equipment on the planets?

I once had telescopes and all the fuzz that goes with it, but finding the planets was a right sod unless you knew (obviously) the exact point amongst the constellations in which to find them. I had limited success but boy! It was fascinating to say the least.

[zuperblue]

there are apps to download free for mobile phones,

point your phone to the sky and it will give the names of planets nebular, outher phenomina,

try

STARTRACKER,

hope this helps

[AffinityJules]

44 minutes ago, zuperblue said:

there are apps to download free for mobile phones,

point your phone to the sky and it will give the names of planets nebular, outher phenomina,

try

STARTRACKER,

hope this helps

It might help now, but 40+ years ago those gadgets didn't exist.

[Guest]

On ‎5‎/‎22‎/‎2018 at 2:54 PM, AffinityJules said:

Apart from all these 'deep field' images - which are remarkable in themselves, do you ever train your equipment on the planets?

I once had telescopes and all the fuzz that goes with it, but finding the planets was a right sod unless you knew (obviously) the exact point amongst the constellations in which to find them. I had limited success but boy! It was fascinating to say the least.

I will have to go back through my old files and find Planetary images.  The UK is a bit far north for most of the planets so I have some archived ones taken nearer the equator.

In the mean time here are a couple of the surface of the Sun - H Alpha re-coloured

***please don't attempt to look at or image the sun without very specialised equipment.***

Clear skies

[AffinityJules]

5 hours ago, Dr Astronomy said:

The UK is a bit far north for most of the planets so I have some archived ones taken nearer the equator.

 

 

Ah. . .so you've travelled with your equipment in tow. And yes, the equator is an ideal place to see the planets. In my youth I didn't have the wherewithal to mount such expeditions so I became restricted to the UK and had to settle for Astronomy classes in night school gathering as much knowledge as I could. The worst obstacle I came across when star gazing was light pollution - so the milky-way. . .no chance!

Your images of the Sun take me back to the time when I purchased my first Sun filter and began observing what I could see, I didn't get the detail you have here but I did get to see Sun spots for the first time.

Great pictures as always, and I look forward to seeing more of your archived material.

[Guest]

5 hours ago, AffinityJules said:

Ah. . .so you've travelled with your equipment in tow. And yes, the equator is an ideal place to see the planets. In my youth I didn't have the wherewithal to mount such expeditions so I became restricted to the UK and had to settle for Astronomy classes in night school gathering as much knowledge as I could. The worst obstacle I came across when star gazing was light pollution - so the milky-way. . .no chance!

Your images of the Sun take me back to the time when I purchased my first Sun filter and began observing what I could see, I didn't get the detail you have here but I did get to see Sun spots for the first time.

Great pictures as always, and I look forward to seeing more of your archived material.

Things have come on a lot - I use a solarmax II which gives about 0.5A bandwidth and dedicated mono camera.

I do have a permanent mounted pier system but most of my solar ones (and planetary for that matter) are taken with a portable kit.  Well if you call 30Kg additional luggage just for my astronomy kit portable !?

Suggest you leave London for a night and head off to the south downs with an F2 ish 30mm lens and give the milky way a shot. - lots of nice dark skies down there.

Clear Skies

[AffinityJules]

18 hours ago, Dr Astronomy said:

Things have come on a lot - I use a solarmax II which gives about 0.5A bandwidth and dedicated mono camera.

I do have a permanent mounted pier system but most of my solar ones (and planetary for that matter) are taken with a portable kit.  Well if you call 30Kg additional luggage just for my astronomy kit portable !?

Suggest you leave London for a night and head off to the south downs with an F2 ish 30mm lens and give the milky way a shot. - lots of nice dark skies down there.

Clear Skies

Yes. . .things have definitely come on - in leaps and bounds.

I sold all my kit years ago; the age old scenario: boy meets girl/marriage beckons/need of money/sell every non-essential possession/divorce/looks backward at what might have been.

These days I am left with a Sony A550 and not much else.

The interest is still there - all my life in fact, but the great divider now is time, or lack of it.

I will bear your suggestion in mind for future reference, and seek some technical advice from my brother (who is a photographer).

[Guest]

Finally managed to get to a site near St Davids with some very clear skies.

The milky way is now in an ideal position to be photographed and is enhanced by having a site with limited light pollution

Here are the results - stacked in Astroart and processed in AP mostly using tone mapping

The bright object in mars glow.jpg is mars and the reflection of the milky way can just be seen in the sea.

Others just show what can be achieved - no gradient removal as the light pollution is so low

The image called Milky is with 10x30s stacked at 8mm F4.5

The other two are specialist mono camera with c mount lens at f1.2

Hope you like them

Clear Skies