Got out again on Sunday evening.

Having read the manual, I discovered a setting in the software that automatically applies a stretch to the image you see (without affecting the original data). That made quite a difference!!

Focussing was a beast. The camera takes continuous images and there is a counter that goes up as you get more in focus. I was using Sirius (nice and bright). However, the counter kept changing (sometimes quite dramatically) every time it took a new shot. Well, I did the best I could. Advice received on the forum (http://stargazerslounge.com/imaging-tips-tricks-techniques/134451-star-halos.html) was that I would be better off using a fainter star, higher up, with a longer exposure, so as not to be 'chasing the seeing'. That's one for next time.

As a first object to image, I selected M50; reasonable size and fairly close by.

The various shooting modes on the software are not necessarily that intuitive. For example, if I select 'continuous shooting', the number of frames I select is irrelevant, because it just keeps on going until I tell it to stop. If I select 'multiple exposures', it will take the number I have requested, but then add them all together (horribly noisy!). Or I can select the 'average multiple exposures' setting which still produces only one image from the number taken, but this time it is more like normal. But why would I do that??

Anyway, ended up with stars with halos; the suggestion being that it was probably a result of my focussing issue, so hopefully that will be put to bed with the new improved(!) procedure. However, as it is 'first light' for the camera, here (for what it is worth) is the result of combining 26 subs of 15, 20 and 30 second durations, totalling 9m 20s.

UPDATE:

Latest advice on forum seems to be that star halos are a result of unfocussed IR light, so I need to get a IR-cut filter. Ordered one from FLO, so will try again with that when it arrives.