M44 - Beehive Cluster

[ApophisAstros]

http://gallery.orpington-astronomy.org.uk/albums/userpics/10062/normal_beehive_cluster.jpg
APT - Paid for version
39 x 50 Second subs , 6 Dark Frames , 6 Bias , 6 Flats
DeepSky Stacker

Roger

[Carole]

Getting there Roger.  The stars are nice and round.

What are you using for post processing?  We might be able to give you some tips.

I see you are doing your calibration frames and it is good to get in the habit of doing that.  What do your stretched flats look like?

Carole

[The Thing]

Hi Roger,

If using DSS turn off all the calibration option and the "Set black point to Zero" to Off, diasble any hot pixle/cold pixel fixing as well (Cosmetic tab). I find it works best if just doing the aligning and calibrating. In the Processing bit at the end turn up the Colour Saturation to about 30% and also select a small part of you image to work on so DSS doesn't recalc the whole picture each time you click apply. Then play with the colour balance (line up all the peaks of the histogram for starters) and the stretching sliders (set the Mid point slider to have the graph line just to the right of the histogram colour peaks to start). You can get quite acceptable results just with DSS if your patient so it's a good starting point. Of course look at the online DSS stuff on YouTube as well.

HTH

Duncan

[ApophisAstros]

Thanks Duncan and Carole,
Roger