Astrophotography
Welcome to !astrophotography!
We are Lemmy's dedicated astrophotography community!
If you want to see or post pictures of space taken by amateurs using amateur level equipment, this is the place for you!
If you want to learn more about taking astro photos, check out our wiki or our discord!
Please read the rules before you post! It is your responsibility to be aware of current rules. Failure to be aware of current rules may result in your post being removed without warning at moderator discretion.
Rules
- I | Real space images only.
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Astrophotography refers to images of astronomical objects or phenomena exclusively.
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~~Images that show objects or people below the Kármán Line (100km) will be removed.~~ We won't be enforcing this rule for now, but as the community grows eventually we will split and have a separate space for just landscape astro.
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Images must be an accurate representation of a real astronomical object.
- II | Original and Amateur Content Only
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Image posts can only be images that you have captured and processed yourself, or discussion about capturing and/or processing your own images.
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Images acquired from public sources, professional observatories, or other professional services are not allowed.
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If you have done a drastic alteration or reprocessing of a prior submission, you may repost your edit - but only after a minimum of one week has passed.
- III | Post Types
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Image posts are to link directly to the image, not to landing pages, personal galleries, blogs, or professional sites. Link to these in the comments. (AstroBin and Imgur, are allowed)
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Questions are welcome here for the time being.
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Links to blogs, articles or external websites should be interesting and promote discussion about amateur astrophotography.
- IV | Titles
- All image posts should just include include the name of the object being photographed. Extra info such as equipment, it being your first image, or other information should go in a comment along with your acquisition info. Please see this page for more details.
If your post is removed, try reposting with a different title. Don't hesitate to message the mods if you still have questions!
- V | Acquisition and Processing Information
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All submitted images must include acquisition and processing details as a top-level comment. All posts without this information may be given a warning, and if not updated will be removed.
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This includes the telescope, mount, camera, accessories, and any other pieces of equipment you used to capture the image.
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You must also include processing details, i.e. the programs you used and a general rundown of the workflow/processes you used within those programs. “Processed in Photoshop” is not enough.
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Certainly!
The first step is to download Siril and then in the "get scripts" area download every Veralux script there is. These are nearly magic, fast, efficient, and the results are absolutely top notch.
Once you have that, head over to the MAST portal and start hunting for data. The important part is to do an advanced search and add filters for mission: JWST, instrument: NIRCAM/image, data rights: public. You want to download only the files ending in "i2d.fits"- this is the level 3 calibrated data, which is the easiest to work with by far. Realistically you want to target data from 2025 or later, as before this the data they provided to the public was heavily artifacted.
To find a target and limit my search I browse JWST releases and look for interesting pictures.
Once you download the data (it's massive) you'll have to open the files in Siril, then immediately save the results as a new file. The reason is that the JWST files have a massive amount (literal GB) of scientific annotations in the FITS data. Amazing stuff, but we only want the picture. Without this step, the data won't consistently open and save in the various scripts.
Now for each image, step through Verilux Nox, Verilux Silentium, and Veralux Alchemy. Go slowly through the previews, as Nox and Silentium aren't always needed on well calibrated JWST data.
Next, you need to register, align, and stack the image into a color image. Guide here: https://siril.org/tutorials/rgb_composition/
For colors follow this guide: https://jwst-docs.stsci.edu/files/216457506/216457541/1/1762454227819/multi_filter_plot_per_means_Jan2025.png and you can adjust later to make it look how you want.
Then you'll need to crop and rotate the image. This can be a little tricky, but the tool under the "geometry" menu entry is up to the task.
Then you'll do a plate solve: https://siril.org/tutorials/photometry/
And (optionally, depending on how you like the results) you can try a Photometric Color Calibration to get the star colors accurate: https://siril.readthedocs.io/en/latest/processing/color-calibration/pcc.html
Then you'll want to extract the stars using StarNet (you'll add them back with the Verilux workflow right before the end) https://siril.readthedocs.io/en/latest/processing/stars/starnet.html
A very nice guide to the remaining steps and how to use all the Verilux scripts can be found here.(And the rest of the videos on his channel are gold for anyone learning Siril) https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLJeHInlBzFrY8m5ATGJuSdXtWRH8SMFVJ
Good luck!
This is great stuff! Thanks. I'll dive into it tonight 😁