Wonderful evening with a sting in the tail

[Carole]

Had a really good evening last night, everything was working well. I managed to do one of the best alignments I've done and M45 (which has now risen just high enough beyond the roof of my house for me to image with the clocks going back), was in the same position without guiding for nearly two hours.  Got lots of subs (around 43) all with darks, did my first flats and Bias frames.  Did remote controlled live view and programmed timed subs for the first time, and used the focus mask which worked perfectly.  I almost got to do M42 but the clouds rolled in.

Anyway, the sting. 
I came in after I had packed up to look at what I had done, and all the subs have disappeared!!!!!!!!!  They were showing when I was outside imaging.

What happened?!!!

I took RAW images, so wondered whether they would not show up as thumbnails once saved, so went into DSS but this said there were no images (I tried all sub files both on the laptop and camera).  There were some .CR files, not sure what they were.

Is this something to do with doing it remotely I need to physically download to the laptop?  There was a box that came up asking if I wanted to acquire images which I ignored, but surely they should be on the memory card if I chose not to download them.  Only other thing I did was I had to change the battery on the camera, can't remember if they were still viewable after I had done that as it was around that point I decided to have a go at M42.

Does any-one have any ideas?

Carole

[Carole]

PS:  Come to think of it, last time I imaged (M31) the only thing I did differently was not use the timed programmer, but I controlled the camera shutter remotely from the laptop and had no problem with losing subs.  But then I did not change the camera battery and don't remember that "acquire images box" coming up last time.  I also didn't do RAWs last time. 

Carole

[Daniel]

Carole, good news......the CR2 files are the raw files, that's canon's raw format, also check wether the images you took are on the memory stick or the laptop, i normally capture directly to the laptop, the defailt place where they would save to would be in your My documents\Pictures folder.

Can't wait to see the results!

Daniel
:O)

[Carole]

the CR2 files are the raw files

Hi Daniel, I did wonder about that, but then why wouldn't DSS recognise them?

I believe they are on the laptop I think in pictures.  Don't have time to look until later today as just off to the Central Library to be the OAS representative for the day.

Also .CR2 is a bloody confusing name, why on earth don't they come up as .RAW!!!!!

Well I don't know how I am going to "get at them" if DSS keeps saying there are no files. 

Thanks
Carole

[JohnP]

Hi Carole,

When I use DSLR focus there is always an option to save files to laptop or camera. I'm not 100% sure but I think if you dont select either it doesn't save the files.....

Tony is the pro when it comes to loosing files so maybe ask him about how to locate them.

John.

PS - If you do a search on your PC for *.cr2 files it should locate them for you. Make sure you check the whole C drive

[Mac]

.cr2

=Canon Raw Version2

dss wont recognise them

,
have you selected raw file when you input the picture files

Just another question, well more of a have you.. as you are shooting raw,

have you selected Raw + Jp, as the image preferances?
That way you can see the finished image as a Jpg (thumbnails will appear)
and use the raw to stack.

also have you turned off long exposure noise reduction in the camera? ***This is a must***
otherwise the camera will try to remove the noise from the image before its saved.

Mac.

[MarkS]

Mac,

One correction: DSS happily recognises and processes raw CR2 files from a Canon.

Mark

[Mac]

One correction: DSS happily recognises and processes raw CR2 files from a Canon.

I know, i jst forgot to put the bit in to quotes, so it looks like a statement,

That looks better.,

[mickw]

Carole if you sit in your lounge with the laptop set up with all the cables plugged in and the camera pointing at anything you like, you can practice to your hearts content.  I don't mean set up the mount as well, just the camera.
That will give you the familiarity with your kit in comfort and without losing any "important" images.

The added bonus is you'll be near the tea pot/wine/beer (delete as apprpriate)

While trying to get my head round capture and long exposure software/hardware, I have taken about 20 images of my coat on the back of a chair over the last couple of days in the comport of my dining room in close proximity to beer 

Good luck

[Carole]

Thanks for the advice every-one. 

have you selected raw file when you input the picture files

This was the answer, whoops, still learning DSS. 

Have found the files now thank goodness. 

also have you turned off long exposure noise reduction in the camera? ***This is a must***
otherwise the camera will try to remove the noise from the image before its saved.

I thought this was the point of doing it having checked with others whether it was a good idea to do.  Have I misunderstood?

have you selected Raw + Jp, as the image preferances?

Didn't do this but had meant to. 

Also I opened another programme called digital photo professional and all the files were shown in Pictures folder (where they did not show elsewhere), shown as actual images, which was handy as I could choose which ones to use, one had a meteor in it which I wouldn't have known otherwise.

Carole if you sit in your lounge with the laptop set up with all the cables plugged in and the camera pointing at anything you like

Yes Mick, have already done that regarding remote camera control and programmed subs, but hadn't gone as far as retrieving the files afterwards in RAW format as I hadn't expected that to be such a problem.

Currently busy stacking and seeing what I've got.

Thanks again every-one

Carole

[Mac]

also have you turned off long exposure noise reduction in the camera? ***This is a must***
otherwise the camera will try to remove the noise from the image before its saved.
 

I thought this was the point of doing it having checked with others whether it was a good idea to do.  Have I misunderstood?

you dont want the camera to do the noise reduction,

so you have to turn off the noise reduction in the camera
or every photo will be processed by the camera!

you are doing this part of the processing youself with the dark frames.
in the stacking software.

Your dark frame is a photo of the noise which you use to remove from your light frames.

If you leave the noise reduction on in the camera, then your dark frame will have the noise that you have photographed removed  by the camera!!!!!!

Mac.

[Carole]

Hi Mac,

I'm confused now as I already had this discussion about autodarks with others who told me to do this, and that they often did it themselves.  But never mind its academic now because I don't think I'll be doing it again as I found out what one person predicted, that it's better to do the darks when it's cloudy and not waste good imaging time.

Anyway, I've spent the evening stacking and processing and this is what I have come up with.

25.10.09 -between 9 and 11.30 (ish).
29 x 30secs Lights (auto darks taken by Canon), Although I think DSS only stacked 23 Lights, therefore a total of 11 1/2 minutes.
4 flats and 1 Bias frame (Hope I took these correctly it was my first time).
Back Garden in Bromley, Canon EOS 450D, no guiding and no filters.
Processed in Photoshop

[MarkS]

Carole,

The stars are sharp and beautifully round (not elongated) and there is plenty of nebulosity beginning to appear.  For 30second exposures in a heavily light polluted environment that's not bad at all.

Well done. 

There's so much to get to grips with at first, as you are finding out!

Mark

[Mac]

thats a pretty good photo.

Looks like your on to step two of that ladder,

Once you get to grips and the familiarity of your equipment and software are second nature,
you'll be well on your way.

as Mickw said, set up everything indoors and image your wall, ect or the TV,
so that you can get to grips with all the little quirky bits,

Dont forget to label where all your leads go, until your familiar with your own set up.

[Carole]

Thanks Mark.

I must say apart from all the trials and tribulations in getting this far, I am finding the post-processing a huge challenge, and really could do with some lessons on this.

Or does every-one find this difficult and it's just a question of experimenting?

Thanks Mac,
I feel quite relieved at last to be getting some results and I'm so pleased you told me about that Focus Mask, it worked a treat. 

Carole