tizza » Sun Jul 03, 2011 2:39 pm wrote:tizza wrote:
Hey astronomer what's the lens cap for? Is it while it processes the photo. I can't lock my mirror open because it cancels out my timers. So I just have to set a 2 or 10sec timer for the pod to settle after I press the button as I don't even have a shutter release yet.
I have a D3100 so it's a very basic entry level DSLR but it can take really good pix. I just have to get around the few features it's lacking. Some people say there's a shutter release cable available for it and others say it doesn't work, don't bother wasting you're money buying it. There is NO mention of it in the manual anywhere as to using a shutter release so I'm still checking out forums.
Robyn, your photo's from the desert at night will just be jaw dropping,
Cheers Paul
Paul, when you take a photo, particularly a long exposure, there is a certain amount of electronic noise.
If you take your normal photo... Ie 15 sec exposure ( we wall call those lights) it will have both the image PLUS the inherent noise.
If you take another photo this time with the lens cap on for 15 sec, there will be no image only the noise,( lets call these darks)
The deepskystacker program will subtract the dark from the light leaving a noise free ( mostly ) image.
Electronic noise is not exact each time so by taking lots of frames you average out the noise.
Registax is also another stacking program, it's specialty lies in stacking video frames.... 1000s, particularly for high resolution planetary imaging, for the moon, Jupiter etc, although you can use it for terrestrial purposes, again video where you have thousands of frames you can increase the detail... A bit like you see on CSI programs.
To get the absolute best results you use all the different types of frames, lights, flats, dais, flat darks and bias.
The colder it is the better result you will get.
Feel free to ask whatever questions you have for astrophotography, as I will probably be able to answer it for you.
The deepskystacker program will then s