Hi everyone,
This is my second attempt at deep sky astrophotography. My first attempt was M81/M82 during a near full moon, which didn’t work out well. I posted here afterwards and got helpful feedback, especially about the impact of moonlight on the data.
I went out again on the Isle of Skye a couple of nights later. This time it was about two days after full moon, but the moon was very low on the horizon and mostly hidden behind clouds and mist. Conditions were better, so I tried again.
This time I imaged M13.
Gear and settings:
- Nikon Z5
- Samyang 135mm f/2 (shot at f/2.8)
- Move Shoot Move Nomad star tracker
- 49 light frames
- 30s exposures
- ISO 400
- 21 dark frames
- Stacked in DeepSkyStacker
- No flats or bias frames used
The stacked image is usable and M13 is clearly visible, but I’m having trouble getting it sharper in post-processing in Lightroom Classic.
The stars are round and tracking seems fine, but the image still feels a bit soft after stretching and editing.
I’ve attached:
- Full stacked image
- Cropped zoom of M13
Link: https://imgur.com/a/m13-advice-nPUt5MW
Questions:
- Is this level of sharpness expected with my setup?
- Am I limited by gear or seeing, or is there more to extract from the data?
- What would improve sharpness most: capture or processing?
- Any tips for improving globular cluster detail?
Any feedback is appreciated. I’m still learning and trying to understand where the biggest improvements come from.