Dobviews

Seestar S30
1,300+ pics stacked

Messier 81 (M81), or Bode's Galaxy, is locate 11.6 to 12 million light-years away from Earth. A grand-design spiral galaxy situated in the constellation Ursa Major, making it one of the nearest large galaxies to our Milky Way.

Messier 82 (M82)
Cigar Galaxy (Lower Right)
Around the galaxy’s center, young stars are being born 10 times faster than they are inside our entire Milky Way galaxy. The Cigar Galaxy is about 12 million light years away.

Apr 27 at 10:19pmWeb
Show threadBluejayApr 27
@appagalcrochet 🤩 Really great!! I recently imaged M81 and M82 as well — I think yours came out better. Are you shooting darks to stack along with your images? I’m still figuring out the best parameters to set for my Dwarf 3.
Show threadDobviewsApr 28

@bluejay Shooting darks? Not sure what that means. The pic was actually taken from my backyard here in Columbus OH so, I am amazed at the view even with all the light pollution.

After I have denoised the picture I download it then I process it using my android phone. I usually lower the shadow but increase the contrast a wee bit and then gently bump the brightness by like 3 or 4 to give the darker skies but make the galaxies pop. I may increase sharpness on moon pics but galaxy pics can pixel.

Show threadBluejayApr 28
@appagalcrochet “Darks” are calibration frames shot with the lens covered so that the image is just black, which exposes the internal camera noise. Stacking several darks along with the galaxy images helps to average out that noise and improve the final image. I’m a noob at this and haven’t tried it myself, but will attempt to shoot some dark frames at some point when I use the Dwarf - hopefully it will help out my photos. Yours already looks great!😊
Show threadBluejayApr 28
@appagalcrochet Oh and I meant to ask, when you download the image to your phone, do you use the jpg image or the larger-size raw or FITS file? I’ve been afraid my phone might not be able to handle the larger files so I’ve just been working with jpgs.
Show threadDobviewsApr 28
@bluejay I have not needed the calibration frames so no darks. Also, not sure how I would get Seestar not to just auto toss them. 🤷🏻‍♀️
It gives me a jpg to work with, I am still new to all this as well so I am still learning what options I have.
Show threadDobviewsApr 28
@bluejay Please note last night the skies were very clear here. I was kinda amazed at the seeing/transparency.
Show threadDobviewsApr 28
@bluejay I tweaked your pic using my editing formula...
Show threadBluejayApr 28
@appagalcrochet Whoa, just saw this. That looks great, thank you!!🙏🏽 I’ll try imaging again on a clearer night, next time I get out to skies darker than Brooklyn.😊 I want to see if I can get more definition in those spiral arms.