First go at imaging with new rig

This is my first real go at imaging. Spent most of last year debugging the mount and guiding setup. (and the operator) This is the Dumbbell taken last night. It was really hot and the DSI seems to put off a lot of noise when it's like 90 outside.

36 * 60" frames Meade DSI pro
Home brew 8" newt on LXD 75 mount
Autoguided with a DSI
Stacked in DSS post in PS

I could use some guidance on post work. I'm not really sure what I'm doing. I just fuss around till it looks less bad. I need to get my work flow down before I take any real shots.

Attached Image:

Very promising Charles!

Hi Charles,

Your off to a great start

Your guiding/tracking looks great.
When it is very warm noise does become a problem.A good basic calibration can go a long way to help reduce it though.It looks like there were probably quite a few hot pixels left in the subs when you stacked this up,probably causing some of the streaks/noise in your image.

A good master dark frame will really help with this,something like 30-50 darks with some kind of data rejection or a median combine would do it.

Since you can go a minute with good guiding I would next try 3-5 minutes and see how that goes.

Your off to a great start,practice makes perfect

Jason

This definitely counts as a "real" image. You are right about the temperature being a factor. I will second the comment on getting a good median of a bunch of darks (I usually don't do more than 10, but am never even close to that warm.)

I don't know about DSS stacking. (?) I have come to like Sigma Beta Combine, which you might want to try.

Charlie