Attempt to image M57 Ring Nebula but ran into problems

I decided to make the change from DSLR to CCD and ran into some issues (of course). Deep Sky Stacker (DSS) would not accept any but 2 of my 180 images. Did the best I could and here are the results.

[wesleydonnelly]

Man that observatory is awesome! You're very lucky my friend!


Wes, Liverpool, England ( Bortle 8 )

[jesuspineiro]

I love you observarory and site ... congrats!!!

[ytubespalal]

Thanks for sharing Bob. It may be too short of exposures (mine are never less than 5min. and usually 10-20min for narrowband. Join in on the astro imaging channel, and Chuck's Astrophotography.. and share what your problem is the guys there are very helpful. I too had (and still do) have challenges after i moved to the ASI1600 mono. Keep plugging at it. Love your dark sky site!

[Pescadoraficionado]

Hi Bob! If you allowed me to say, I think you should check the weight of your gear, it's seems the payload of the Ioptron ieq30 it's around 15 Kgs. That could be the reason of the tracking issues. Therfore the Time exposure it's shorts.
Aún así you took a beatiful photograph. Nice observatory !!

[jesuspineiro]

In DSS: select pictures files -> Register checked pictures -> Advanced -> Star Detection Threshold (try 10% to 20% or less if you requiered). This will detect more stars. The area of M57 is poor and you may need to adjust the star detection threshold.

[derekrobson]

Great observatory. Lovely image of M57. At 15s, by the look of the two-stack, you're getting decent enough data in single lights. I did come across this myself where I was taking 2-2.5s images using a undriven DSLR on tripod. Despite taking something like 100+ images, plus darks, it was coming up with wanting to stack only one image. I was able to get round that by changing the threshold to increase the number of stars detected (but I note, for you, that didn't work. But there are a lot of variables in DSS, so it may be just one of those that need changing, e.g. the algorithm types, median, average etc). Have you looked at the number of stars detected in each light by DSS and if there is much of a variation in the number, and % quality? If there isn't much difference, then I would have thought they should stack well because similar quality would imply they were roughly indistinguishable from one another. You can change the reference light frame in DSS to any one of the lights, so you could try that but I suspect from the symptoms described, it probably won't. But worth a try anyway varying the reference frame. It's a right click on the frame in the list you want as the reference frame.

[JMacX]

That RC is F9 so it's slowish to bring in the light. If I were you if you get a second scope look for f/5 or so. Data will come in faster. Still those two shots at 15 seconds a piece came out nice. Not sure about your files though. Are they TIF files? Have you looked into Photoshop or Pixinsight?

[KevinFrancisR]

If changing sensitivity in DSS doesn't work, try doing a very small stretch with FitsLiberator, then stack with DSS.

[robertstewart]

Hi Bob, Have you tried changing the star sensitivity setting in DSS? I know from experience that if it set at the wrong level then it will not locate any stars. Also did you include your darks etc?

[firefox]

Do you think increasing your exposure time to 30 or 60 seconds would have made it easier for DSS to find the stars?