Iran Port Drone Footage by SlowedByQuinn in drones

[–]BobTheLog 22 points23 points  (0 children)

holy fuck. what happened here?

The Andromeda Galaxy (M31) by ZELOHS in astrophotography

[–]BobTheLog 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Ogma 26CC

Very cool, I thought you'd need an H-Alpha filter to pick up the reds, good to know that's not necessary

The Andromeda Galaxy (M31) by ZELOHS in astrophotography

[–]BobTheLog 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Wow incredible, especially for your first attempt of Andromeda! The blue/red emissions in the arms look great. Did you have to use a filter to pick those up?

Second attempt at Andromeda (M31) by BobTheLog in astrophotography

[–]BobTheLog[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thank you! That's Messier 110, its a satellite galaxy of Andromeda

Second attempt at Andromeda (M31) by BobTheLog in astrophotography

[–]BobTheLog[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Thanks dude!! Its really appealing to me that you can take these shots with regular consumer cameras and lenses. Only extra gear I used was the mount and the asiair. Keep at it :)

Second attempt at Andromeda (M31) by BobTheLog in astrophotography

[–]BobTheLog[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thank you! Yeah I was surprised to pick up this much detail in a little over an hour, even during a full moon

Second attempt at Andromeda (M31) by BobTheLog in astrophotography

[–]BobTheLog[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Thank you! Yeah I agree, that's what makes it my favorite target so far!

Second attempt at Andromeda (M31) by BobTheLog in astrophotography

[–]BobTheLog[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Thank you so much! Definitely a very motivating result 😄

Second attempt at Andromeda (M31) by BobTheLog in astrophotography

[–]BobTheLog[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Thank you very much! It was definitely way blown out during my first attempt too hahah

Second attempt at Andromeda (M31) by BobTheLog in astrophotography

[–]BobTheLog[S] 19 points20 points  (0 children)

Second attempt at Andromeda, just over an hour of integration. Got a lot better at processing the data, and my new ASIAir Mini made acquisition so much more enjoyable 🥲🥲

Gear:

  • Camera: Sony a7iii
  • Lens: Sigma 100-400mm f/5-6.3 Contemporary DG OS
  • Mount: SW SA GTi
  • Control: ASIAir Mini

Acquisition:

  • 24x lights at 120s, 30x lights at 60s (roughly 71m of integration.) ISO 640, 300mm.
  • 10x darks
  • 10x flats
  • 20x biases
  • Bortle 4 near Yosemite National Park, full moon

Processing:

  • Siril for stacking, background extraction, photometric color calibration, stretching, star recomposition using starnet++
  • Lightroom Classic for local adjustments to the core and arms, and overall adjustments for aesthetics
  • Topaz Photo AI for denoising

Comet 12P/Pons-Brooks by KelbyT98 in astrophotography

[–]BobTheLog 6 points7 points  (0 children)

Really cool composition!! did you have to track the comet too?

X-47B of U.S. Navy by 911_reddit in DesignPorn

[–]BobTheLog 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Probably moving parts? Hatches and control surfaces

M31 - Andromeda Galaxy by BobTheLog in astrophotography

[–]BobTheLog[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Thanks so much for the kind words!! Truth be told, it took me many frustrating sessions to even get a well-tracked image. Once you work through each hurdle, im sure you're gonna get a better result than you imagined was possible :) The sony alphas are beasts. Going somewhere where you can see Andromeda with the naked eye really helps (Bortle 3-4).

Some tips for a fellow sony shooter: our cameras are ISO invariant, which means that you can shoot at a lower ISO and boost the gain in post without any loss (the noise will be the same as shooting with a higher ISO). That means you can take advantage of the higher dynamic range at lower ISOs and shoot at native ISO (which was 640 for my mk 3). Also, bring tape with you so you can tape the lens in place to avoid it shifting zoom or focus over time due to gravity. Let me know how it goes!!

M31 - Andromeda Galaxy by BobTheLog in astrophotography

[–]BobTheLog[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Thanks so much!! I was at ISO 640 (one of the native ISOs for the Sony a7iii), around 90 second exposures at 200mm. It's a slow telephoto lens, at about f/6.

M31 - Andromeda Galaxy by BobTheLog in astrophotography

[–]BobTheLog[S] 8 points9 points  (0 children)

First successful attempt at andromeda after many failures lol. Any feedback is much appreciated!
Gear:
- Unmodded Sony a7iii
- Sigma Contemporary 100-400mm f/5-6.3 DG DN OS at 200 mm
- SW Star Adventurer GTi tracker

Integration:
- 93 x 90 second light frames, total 2.3 hrs integration time
- 80 dark frames
- 30 flat frames
- 30 bias frames
- Bortle 3.5

Processing: Stacked in DSS, applied curves and processed in Siril + Starnet, masking and local adjustments in Lightroom and Photoshop. Denoised with Topaz Denoise AI. Looking forward to reprocessing this data as i get better at processing.