I used 55x 15-sec exposures using a Canon EOS Rebel T6 with the kit-standard EF-S 18-55mm lens at 18mm focus (f/3.5) and ISO at 3200.
I used Siril to stack those lights, about 30 darks, 30 flats, and 30 biases. Additional processing in Siril included background extraction, manual color calibration (I was unable to plate solve to be able to use PCC), denoise, remove green haze, BP stretch, and GHS. Finally, I tweaked contrast and exposure values in Darktable.
This was very much a trial run to see whether I’d even be able to get decent data from my location. The result, while definitely leaving room for improvement, is still promising and encouraging enough to continue.
Since this run, I have acquired a tripod and an intervalometer to help improve the acquisition process. I will try getting more captures at a lower exposure time as a starting point, I noticed a small amount of trailing in this image. I’m new to Siril, but with all the documentation and tutorials available, I’m confident I’ll be able to improve with more sessions.
I figure I’m limited to wide-field Milky Way shots for now, but if there’s anything specific I can do to improve, I’ll be taking notes! #space source