17/05/2026
Well... I can definitely say that photographing Comet PANSTARS made me realise just how out of practice I am at both the taking og the photos (exposure time, framing yada yada yada 🤦🏼♀️) and then the editing of the photos (Siril, Deep Sky Stacker, Photoshop, GraXpert, Starnett++ 😳). The plus side is I can now get everything set up, levelled, focused & framed relatively quickly 😁 Spud tried to help out a 🤏🏻 bit but his headbutts to the tripods were not overly appreciated 🙄😂
I have had a hell of a time remembering how to add Hydrogen Alpha data to my RBG data 🤦🏼♀️ I know Siril can do it but I don't really like the results I get 🤷🏼♀️ I did work it out in the end, and the photos definitely look better for it (IMO) but each to their own. I hope you enjoy looking at the results of over a weeks worth of self inflicted late-ish nights and lots of coffee & frustrations with editing 😁 There are 4 of the same image in this lot where you can see I was having issues with editing the Hydrogen Alpha into the RGB. Decided to add them all so you can see the struggle is real 😏 😁
All sky images are tracked & stacked with various settings. Foreground images are single shots for 1-3 mins.
Equipment used:
2 x Skywatcher Star Adventurer 2i
Move Shoot Move star tracker (original)
2 x Canon 450D's - 1 stock & 1 astro modified + various lenses
Astronomik 12nm HA filter
Nikon D5600 + various lenses
Remote shutter releases for all 3 cameras (they work really well when you actually remember to set for infinity photos instead of just 1 🙄🤦🏼♀️😂)
Spud the cat for a lap/neck warmer and encouraging headbutts
