Newbie needs help

[TimoS]

Hi

Just joined this forum. I am really the beginner among all beginners Just to let you know.

At this point I am learning to take astrophotos with my Canon 60 Da. Last time I managed to take 2min lights (no auto guider) with round stars at 2000mm focal length wit Celestron 8"  Edge HD. Its mounted on Heq5pro. Lots of light pollution. And focusing is challenge, I guess it's that for everybody

I have also celestron 0,7 reducer/flattener. So I think next step is to take series of lights and combine them.

I have ordered EL-panel to take quality flats.

I'd like to use dithering method but still not quite sure how to use it.

I really want to learn and looking for proper starting point. I looking for posts here or helpful tutorials and information how to use PI.

I have to start from the beginning. PI and other softwares are new to me.

I already tried to combine few images with PI of M42 but without flats and clear picture of what to do and in what order it did not work, of course. I have some skills how to take flats, darks and biases. But what is best way to take and use darks with DSLR? Some sources say that they re not that important or just one or..


Also I'd like learn how to process one color shot of milky way? do I need darks, flats, biasess. What kind of processed in PI are usefull...


Can you give me hints were to beginning my learning process ?

Timo

PS. I have the latest PI, Nebulosity 3 and canon software.

[CharlesW]

I live in a suburb, red zone, and I'm taking galaxy pictures with my C14. I've found that I can cut a lot of light pollution if I can wait to start imaging until my object hits 60 degrees. Then I let it run to its transit and I start on another galaxy that's at 60 degrees. And then another. I don't go past transit because I don't have a view to the west. It might take four days to get all your time in but you'll have finished at least three objects, depending on sleep.

[jkmorse]

Timo,

There is a lot of great material out there to help.  A great place to start on PixInsight is with Harry's Astroshed (just type that into Google and his site should pop up).  It has great tutorials to get you started.  I have also put together an extensive cribsheet that may help as well.  It has a detailed workflow and extensive tool notes.  If you are interested, just drop me a line at jkmorse57@gmail.com and I will happily send you my latest version (up to Revision 35 now). 

As to dithering, that is tied to whether you use an autoguider.  If you do, most capture software has an option to have the autoguider move the frame a few pixels in a random direction between frames.  If you are using an autoguider, dithering is great for getting rid of bad pixels and things like satellite trails during the calibration process.  It also is mandatory if you are shooting wide field with a high arc second per pixel system (something higher than 2 arc seconds per pixel) and want to use drizzle, which does amazing things.

Though its by no means complete, I do also cover off a number of matters like flats and other beginner topics in my website www.jimmorse-astronomy.com. 

Best of luck in getting started in this wonderful adventure.

Jim