First 'Dark' Light Canon 700D 18-55 IS STM

[RichM63]

I've been itching to get outside with the camera for the very first Astro shots with it (this is supposedly why I got it in the first place)

As the wind had awoken me at around 3am I went outside for a look see and was surprised to see that although garden furniture was heading east, it was not raining and the sky was pretty clear despite the highwind.

Set, 18mm, ISO800, f3.5, 10x30 seconds RAW with 5 seconds delay on a fixed photo tripod.

Focus was hope for the best because I couldn't see anything in Liveview, so used AF.

I've had a heck of a time with DSS constantly flashing the 'Out of Memory' right at the end of the process, until I discovered that unchecking x2 Drizzle allowed it to get to the end.

Then I discovered that Gimp doesn't like FITS files and so downloaded FITS Liberator v3 stand alone, for a little B/W tweaking.

And finally ran through DxO Pro for a little noise reduction and mainly to reduce the file size for posting.

1st pic, unstacked, unproccessed.

2nd pic, 8 stacked and processed through DSS, Fits Liberator.

WIDE TEST DSS_2.tif

3rd Pic, as pic 2 but 1 run through DxO Pro

Final pic, as 3rd pic but 2 runs through DxO Pro to remove some fuzzines (can't decide between 3

and 4).

This is genuinely my first ever attempt at stills AP and I really am struggling to figure out how to process, but it is thanks to you folk on SGL that I even have a picture.

I am unsure about the processing of White, too much looks like a blizzard of stars, too little seems to remove too much detail.

Black seems to be more simple, my sky is black W/O a Moon.

Any advice would be gratefully appreciated.

[happy-kat]

Focus looks pretty good. Did it not see anything with the ISO cranked up?

I prefer the middle image there are more stars.

[wxsatuser]

Thats reasonable for a first go, your on your way.

I like the first pic with M45.

[RichM63]

Focus looks pretty good. Did it not see anything with the ISO cranked up?

I prefer the middle image there are more stars.

I'm very much still learning, it never entered my head to try that. Thanks, now I will. :