Taking Great Images

People ask what the secret is to getting great images.

First off there is no secret. There are processes that we all follow and refine to get the images that we do. I want to start off by saying that great images are the result of a lot of attention to small things. They are also the result of some luck. Luck in that it doesn’t cloud over, or get windy ruining a bunch of frames.

Things like polar alignment. Spending the extra time to accurately polar align may not be as much fun as collecting light, but the light you collect will be a whole lot more pinpoint if you pay attention to good alignment numbers.

Things like tube balance. Properly balancing and biasing the weight load on your mount helps with tracking and autoguiding.

Things like making sure you calibrate your guiding properly, near that magic point where the meridian meets the celestial equator preferably. Let’s get that calibration as good as we can before we execute.

Things like dithering and setting that up to happen in your routine. And don’t forget about that focus check as well. Using a mask to help with focus is helpful. Even better are the various EAF options on the market today that use FWHM to pinpoint focus.

Things like dew protection. Setting your dew heater properly, and climatizing your scope properly are vital to good images. Any thermal patterns are going to result in issues.

Things like collecting enough of the right kind of light. Having an adequate sample of data to stack is vital to good image density. And while we are at it, don’t forget all of those vitally important calibration frames to boot.

Things like picking dark sites. Reducing ambient light pollution is good all around, plus it rids you of many of the gradient issues we encounter.

Finally let’s not forget about using quality optics and ensuring proper collimation. Don’t underestimate your gear, especially if you are going to practice all of the steps above.