4 Ways To Improve Your Astrophotography Images
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- čas přidán 24. 07. 2024
- Astrophotography is one of the most challenging (and sometimes frustrating!) hobbies out there. There are many variables that will effect how our final image turns out, and some of them we have no control over. If you only have 2 clear nights per month, it can be difficult to remember how to do your polar alignment, focus, which settings to use, etc.... It will also take a long time to gather enough data for a clean photo.
However, in today's video I want to focus on four variables that we do have control over: Camera Gear, Total Exposure Time, Processing Skill, and Light Pollution. If you can improve on all four of these variables, your final image quality will improve much faster!
I recommend focusing on your total exposure time and processing skills this winter. Both can be improved without spending any money.
00:00 - Intro
00:49 - #1 - Processing Skills
05:41 - #2 - Total Exposure Time
07:17 - #3 - Light Pollution
10:50 - #4 - Camera Gear
19:07 - Final Thoughts
Excellent video! I enjoyed the wonderful comparison - 4th time's the charm! A wonderful demonstration, and M42 looks incredible! CS!
Excellent video/advices! I must consider learning more about post-processing. As you said in the video, in a given month you just get a couple of nights with clear skies (unless you live in a desert somewhere 🤪. The rest of the month could be spent on perfecting the skills with re-processing image session data.👍
Damn good presentation. Well-written and easy to listen to.
Excellent explanations, good supporting images. Thanks. I have very budget photography gear and only do a bit of astrophotography because I think the process is interesting.
Hi there Peter, this is Claudio from Italy. First of all let me thank you for all the interesting videos you post that are very well made, with interesting topics and easy understandable tips
for everyone. I'm new to this wonderful hobby and live in a light polluted Bortle 6 area in the north eastern part of Italy close to Padua (a city about 20 miles away from Venice). My neighborhood is unfortunately packed with LED street lamps and other kind of artificial lights and it's very frustrating shooting from the balcony of our condominium only towards east. Furthermore I have no visual to the north, so to have a good alignment is very tough for me and almost impossible. I upgraded from an Omegon lx3 mechanical tracker to a Sky watcher star adventurer 2i, and I'm still learning how to use the full potential of it. I use a Fuji XE3 camera and a Samyang 135 f/2 lens which is a fantastic lens and a (quite) sturdy photographic tripod. I am pleased so far with what I achieved but to be honest I still struggle with getting rid of gradients in my pictures and the noise. The best pictures I took are obviously the ones I shot in the mountains (on the border between Italy and Austria a 3 and 1/2 hour drive away, Bortle 3 area) but I cannot afford to go on vacation so often...so my question is, shooting from my balcony , which one of the 4 points that you mentioned (besides post-processing, where I only use Photoshop, Siril and Starnet++) should I invest in first? I was thinking about getting a filter in order to cut out the light pollution in my area. Any ideas how to put our the filter between the camera and the lens? Any filter drawer available? (It seems that there are no clip- in filters for Fuji X cameras). By doing so, would anything change with getting the correct focus on my DSLR? Or would I be better off with a "low cost" cooled camera? (max 1000 Euros?) Once more, a big thank you for your fantastic support and inspirational videos for beginners like me.
Great advice! I live in the "green belt" southwest of London UK so only a short drive away from some good dark sky sites. As a novice in astrophotography with a limited budget I am taking things a step at a time. A goto mount is my latest extravagance which i am still learning to use effectively. The weather here is very changeable so we just have to go with the flow.
Very nice Peter, very informative.. I shoot from my bortle 4 backyard and I just put together a lighter/wider rig for imaging using a SW AZ-GTi on a wedge in EQ mode with a SW 50ED Evoguide as my main scope, ASI533MC Pro, ASIAIR Pro, EAF, EFW and getting some very good images over the past week... Have my eye on the ZWO AM3 mount for my main scope..
Nice, Peter. I am now awaiting my AM-5, which will be used in n parallel with my EQ-6R Pro. Will run a wide field (244mm) and slightly longer (650mm) setups, both with ASI Air Plus or Mini and an Astrocamera.
That was very interesting and informative. Over the last four years I've come to similar conclusions. I have a mono and a colour astronomy camera plus a red cat51 and WO GT81 which I use with an EQ6-R, but currently I am using an unmodified Canon DSLR and Samyang (Rokinon) 135mm lens for convenience as I'm currently moving house. This is mounted on an SA GTi goto mount and is controlled by an ASIAir mini, I have also installed a ZWO EAF and mini guider. I have also fitted dew heaters powered from the ASI mini via a two channel controller. The camera is fitted with a dual band clip filter. This works better than I thought it would but I do need to take a lot of exposures ( for the Heart Nebula I recently had to take 120x120" @ ,ISO 800 and could probably do with another 120. But it did give a nice wide field view which included the double cluster as well. When shooting with this set up I will often add Ha data taken with my mono camera which greatly improves the final image. Many DS targets are located near a bright star ( the Horse Head being a classic) so not all are difficult to locate when using a non goto mount, especially if you have a plate solving programme in your control software.
Like you, I live in the Pacific NW (Bellingham). Seemingly, for the rainy, cloudy, foggy six months out of the year (or more), we have PLENTY of opportunities to practice our processing skills. (After 3 months of cloudy skies, I think it surely would be nice to have a winter, dark-sky place in the Sonoran Desert....dream on.)
Narrow band filters help. However, difference between bortle 2 and 8 is still 3-fold. For broad band filters difference is 12-15 fold.
Odd question - but somewhat on point here.
I have a pretty good setup right now and I am looking at getting a second filter to go alongside my L-Extreme to capture some SII data. The L-Extreme is 7nm wide in the areas which it is concentrating in - Ha and OIII.
What do you think is a good pairing for the L-Extreme?
Bonus question - I am looking at getting a second Telescope and was looking at the Askar V but I am now looking longer (closer to 1000mm magnification) since I am still having issues with my old Meade SCT.
Trying to keep a budget in mind - what would you choose. Looking at the Askar 120 or 140 since the 185 is way out of budget for me.
Understood that you have not tried out all the options but I value your opinion.
17:42 I actually took my EQ6 R Pro + tripod and my Sywatcher Esprit 120 around the world … or should I say to South African skies. It was a pain but will never regret that 4 months in the bush under B1 sky. Then I have to take the setup back to France. 😂
In terms of equipment, how much improvement would you expect if you doubled the aperture of your telescope, given other factors like atmospheric turbulence and light pollution? Theoretically larger apertures give you better resolution but does this pan out in practice?
Hi Peter, thanks for your excellent work! A question please, is it better to take say 30 second exposures or 90 second exposures if your total exposure time is the same?
And how much difference is there between iso 400 and say iso 3200 in final image quality with the same exposure time?
Thanks for taking the time to answer me.
where can i find charts like the one at 12:57 for other cameras?? ive looked a fair bit on the site of the watermark but i dont find any
1 more question, I have the L-Extreme filter right now in my bortle 7 here in Colorado. Do you think the L-Enhance is better and would give me better results than the Extreme?
I have an astromoded Rebel T7i. I bought it new for $900. I Contemplated purchasing a better DSLR mod. Thinking real cooled astrocameras where out of budget. THEY'RE NOT. The ZWO 533mc pro is $900. Player one's are cheaper. HUGE improvement.
How do you get that beautiful background?
What is the workflow for using filters? I have the 533 color version, and a uv/ir cut filter. What if i want to use the L-enhance for example, do i just add it to the imaging train, keeping the uv/ir filter in place or i have to shoot with L-enhance separately, and uv/ir separately, and then combine the data in post? Or do i just use the L-enhance only and that's it? Sorry for the long-winded question.
Only 1 filter at a time, if you want to use your l enhance do not have the uv/ir cut filter in the imaging train, then you can do some with just the uv ir cut filter and use the natural stars from the uv ir cut filter for the narrowband image or keep the stars from the l enhance since the narrowband reduces the stars a little anyways you just won’t have natural color stars but either work it’s just preference but as the images get better you might want to add the color stars to narrowband images it just makes it a little more interesting and honestly not hard to do at all
Hi Peter, which membership do you need to purchase to watch your tutorial videos? I see you have a $5 and a $10 option. Thank you
Just like you, I have an ASI 120MM Mini. It works well with my asiair +. I also have an asiair mini. When I pair this with the Asi120 mini guide camera it isn't recognized. It's probably a firmware issue. Can anyone help point me in the right direction?
I hate stacking, hoping for long exposure with a ZWO guide when I get my rig very soon.
The new SW GTi is a game changer
Good advice, however, I would not characterize the Optolong L-eNhance Light Pollution Dual-Bandpass filter (2 inch) at $229 as "cheap."
Compared to filters that cost thousands, it is cheap though 😅
Use the Svbony 220 instead! It’s as good as the waaay more expensive than the L-extreme, a step up from the L-enhance, and it’s cheaper than the L-enhance
“Inexpensive”would be a better word than “cheap”, IMHO
What are the 3 most important discoveries you've made using your astronomical equipment?
I just bought a Milwaukee tool case just for my filters, their crazy expensive.
probably a dumb question about focusing...wont you always just focus on infinity? unless you have fl of 50m or something dumb like that
Or.... Get a go-to mount and good scope or telephoto lens. Modify your mirrorless camera and get and ASIAIR. Will spend a good deal less and get amazing shots.
That Ai Art background tho
Have you noticed the stars getting brighter ?
Great video
Question what neroband filter should I use for bortle 4-5 area
And what do you mean more exposure time more subs or longer shooter speed ?
Thanks
Good video but the argument of do I need an Astro camera is a bit of a stretch. $1500 camera for results that are a bit better than a $200 modification? Just doesn't seem worth to me.
And filters
"I don't feel like you have to spend more money to get better photos" ... "but with regular camera gear you're never gonna get great photos" Man the video is great, and you are partially right, but still...
Nice, but AI!
Remember, with a cooled camera, when they say -20c they actually mean 20c lower the current ambient temperature, not 20 below zero.
nope.
Nope... my cameras have a cooling delta of -45⁰c, meaning they will go 45 below ambient. I routinely run them at 20⁰c below zero.
This is absolute false.
An confirm on ZWO and ASI Air, that is an absolute temp, not a delta. The camera does have a max delta to am isn't, but the setpoint are absolute Temps.
@@AlexN-Astroyou should set temp relative to light pollution. Only need to go extreme when sky electrons are very low at a dark site.