Grainy/noisy images

[LesG]

Hi All,

I am a new users of my Atik infinity camera, purchased in Dec 2018, though only getting chance to actually use it now.

The one thing that I am finding is the images are always very grainy/noisy and find it very difficult/impossible to get a full black background with stars as I would expect, see image example. (I am new to this so hopefully the attached image will be visible?)

The ability to get a clear image has been a real problem, after watching a number of you tube video's, including Atik's own video's the background has been so clear and solid black, and this is what made me choose this camera, I have been so looking forward to using and anticipating similar results, but have been somewhat disappointed.

The main thing is know I am on the object, as tweaking the histogram with the amount of grain/noise makes it sometimes impossible to know if I am on the object I 'think' I am on.

My setup is a fixed polar aligned C11 SCT on EQ6-Pro mount with 0.63 focal reducer. and for nebular objects I use a ZWO Duo-Band Dual Narrowband Filter.

The sky is light polluted, Class 8 Bortle, which makes visual observing so difficult, hence switching to a camera, hoping to take advantage of their superior light capturing ability over our eyes!

If any one can provide any suggestions most welcome.
 

[CraigG]

Hi Les-

Just an observation...your sample shot looks like you haven't built up much of a single to noise ratio. Doing so is the main way to bring out the nebula and darken the background at the same time. How many sub frames are you stacking to create your images?

Craig

[LesG]

Hi Craig,

This particular image was just  4 x 15 sec frames.

I have noticed that if I use a short setting, 5 - 10 seconds, the camera rejects most frames, so I think my main issue at this point is just lack of time trying different settings.

I think my expectations have maybe enhanced seeing video's of users that seem to resolve better images in the first 2 or 3 short stacks.

Think I need a few more clear nights to do more trials on similar targets to compare.

thanks for the feedback.

Les

[CraigG]

You're welcome Les!

I started off imaging with a color Infinity camera and had great success with it. I support trying different settings in the Infinity program but I think you'll notice the most improvement by stacking way more subs. This is especially important given your challenging sky conditions. I would routinely stack 45 x 15 seconds to get my best images and that's with a bortle 3 sky. See if you can get that to work and check back in!

Best wishes,
Craig