Astro help

[pmac]

So I’ve tried my hand at Astro this week but I’m still totally unsure about what I’m doing.

Software for Mac- ended up using starstax
Also downloaded siril but have zero idea on how it works. I couldn’t even load images into it
Everyone always recommends sequator (windows only) so What’s best?

Milky way images - https://www.talkphotography.co.uk/threads/milky-way-season-has-began.766327/
As per this images the last post says to stack images, I’ve also seen this a lot.. how do you do this without having a star trails type of image?
Similarly how do you take a pano of multiple images and stacks ( linked to the first question I guess, software and how to edit)
I need up using LR hdr stacking but not sure it really did much.
Thanks

 

[LeeRatters]

I've only used Sequator for stacking - the pocky issue I get is that even after selecting the sRGB colour space, the exported file has no colour space..... A quick open in PS and export adds one though.

Tbh, I don't tend to stack images nowhere near as much as I used to - I certainly don't when I do panoramic arch images because it's downscaled so much they come out good enough. And stitching 20 or so jpeg images into a panorama is bad enough without it being 20 stacked tiff files....!!

 

[benhben]

Used to do a lot of astro before I had kids and needed the sleep!

Stacking can be a bit of a faff, but theres some good online tools like Sequator. Think theres one called stary landscape stacker as well. Advice is take multiple shorter exposures at High ISO and stack in Sequator or something. This then creates an editable TIFF file which can be imported to lightroom or photoshop. If you do any exposures longer than 20-30 seconds the starts will start to blur. The stacking removes the noise.

You can also buy small star trackers to put on your tripod which move with the star movement. This allows very long sharp sky exposures, but downside is youll have to do a seperate forground shot and blend.

My single biggest advice for astro is...Make sure the photo would still be a good photo without the astro part. Good foreground, composition and exposure. When I first started I used to do a star trail or milky way and forget about the rest of the photo. They look pretty crap to me now.