Astrophotography with 907x

[Vinyl_TO]

A low resolution output of one of my night sky images captured in Croatia back in September. I only got around to processing it recently. My first attempt at astrophotography with the 907x. This used the XCD 30mm @ f3.5, 32s at ISO1600.

I will note that my uploads to this site always seem to result in horrible image quality. I've got got it figured out yet. The downsampled original looks much much better on my screen before I upload it than it does in the browser once I upload it. Maybe it recompresses? Not sure.

 

[sj2w1]

I have the same problem with images posted, they look like muddy garbage. I wish I had an answer but I haven't figured it out. with the exception that sharpening the jpeg makes it look worse.

 

[4x5Australian]

A low resolution output of one of my night sky images captured in Croatia back in September. I only got around to processing it recently. My first attempt at astrophotography with the 907x. This used the XCD 30mm @ f3.5, 32s at ISO1600.

I will note that my uploads to this site always seem to result in horrible image quality. I've got got it figured out yet. The downsampled original looks much much better on my screen before I upload it than it does in the browser once I upload it. Maybe it recompresses? Not sure.


View attachment 208518

Looks like you just caught the Andromeda Galaxy. Nice.

 

[Vinyl_TO]

Is anyone use using this system to try to capture any night sky images? Please share your posts here if so… I’d love to see them.

 

[jng]

Here's my one serious attempt at capturing the Milky Way three years ago during that season's new moon. I chalked the result up to beginner's luck and haven't attempted one since.

Milky Way, redux by John Ngai, on Flickr
​

I shot 10 frames on an X1D with XCD 3.5/30 wide open, 23s @ ISO 3200. The raw files were converted in Phocus and then blended in PS, with the sky and foreground handled separately to account for the earth's rotation, and then layered back together again resulting in the final image. There was a bit of a marine layer that evening, so I pushed the dehaze slider in ACR pretty hard. As a result, there's a nice effect from the air glow above the horizon.

I found the XCD30 not quite wide enough to capture enough of the sky when shooting level, so tilted the whole rig skyward (which is why the lighthouse is centered in the frame, to prevent it from leaning). I think the XCD21 would be a better choice for such images (mine didn't find its way into my kit until later). I made a 5-image vertical panoramic stitch earlier that evening (click on link here), which I think is a better composition but noisier since I only had one file per frame position to work with.

My biggest challenge of the evening was hitting focus. Live view was a complete mess of noise. Later I read that this can be mitigated by either turning on or off exposure simulation - I can't remember which so would just suggest toggling that button and using whatever looks cleaner in live view. I was shooting tethered at the time so could at least verify focus after each capture, but it was frustrating.

John

 

[TimoK]

I will note that my uploads to this site always seem to result in horrible image quality. I've got got it figured out yet. The downsampled original looks much much better on my screen before I upload it than it does in the browser once I upload it. Maybe it recompresses? Not sure.

I have the same problem with images posted, they look like muddy garbage. I wish I had an answer but I haven't figured it out. with the exception that sharpening the jpeg makes it look worse.

I had this problem some time ago and still have it, but I partially solved it. The Getdpi forum software does nothing to our pictures, the web browsers do. They zoom in, at least my Firefox and Chromium do that. You see it if you measure your picture on screen with the measuring tape at home and at forum.

My solution is to look at all interesting pictures, not only my own ones, at any web site zoomed to 67%. Then the text becomes too small to read. So I have to zoom back to normal view. (Zoom in with ctrl++, zoom out ctrl+-, normal view ctrl+0.)
Your picture looks very nice and sharp at 67%.