My First Shot at the North American Nebula: A Beginner's Astrophotography Journey
As a budding astrophotographer, I'm thrilled to share my third image: the magnificent North American Nebula! This was my first attempt at capturing this iconic celestial landmark, and I'm incredibly pleased with the outcome. While I have another version with a softer aesthetic, this particular processing clicked with me the most.
It's fascinating how post-processing can transform raw data. For about half an hour, this image looked like a complete mess, but then, something finally fell into place, and it all came together beautifully. It's a testament to the art and science of bringing out the details hidden within the night sky.
Technical Details and the Process:
- Location: Shot from a Bortle 6 sky.
- Acquisition:
- 400 x 30-second subs at ISO 1600.
- Canon Rebel T7 camera.
- Canon EF 70-300mm f/4-5.6 lens, shot at 135mm.
- Star Adventure Star tracker.
- 40 flats, darks, and biases each.
- Processing:
- Stacked and stretched in Siril.
- Edited in Graxpert and GIMP.
- Star removal performed with Starnet.
I opted to allow Siril to compress the files due to space constraints on my laptop. I used Rice compression with quantization at 1, and I'm eager to hear feedback on whether this impacts image quality or introduces noticeable loss. As a beginner, any and all feedback on my techniques and the final image is highly appreciated!
This journey into astrophotography is proving to be both challenging and incredibly rewarding. Witnessing the universe unfold through my lens is an experience I cherish.
