Erquy

Hi I am not a PS user, but another route is the principle blending exposute (apart that you don´t use 2 different stack exposure, but as you did, a single frame for the core (also you can maybe used a non streched stack and a streched stack for the rest): use mask/blur/curve as explained: http://www.astropix.com/HTML/J_DIGIT/LAYMASK.HTM also you have a lot more data in your picture: I downloaded you jpeg and gave it a level stretch in GIMP: a lot more comes out.

Thanks for comments, I am really happy with the results. For the full background: Indeed captured with the Skymax 102, synscan goto Alt Az without any special tricks nor focal reducer or so (Canon EOS1100D at prime focus, using EOS utility). Also pictured taken south-south west which is not best -for comparison I manage 25 sec on pleiades more West-. 15 sec subs exposure was acceptable with about 70% of the pictures usable (and when unusable, typically little vibration of the mount I believe which means the mount is more the limiting factor than the scope itself). Stack in Nebulosity (Deep sky stacker does not accept much of the picturse as I understand it is very sensitive to the shape of the stars, and reject most of them, but above shows still giving a pretty good result when using Nebulosity -selecting alignement points manually). I am thinking to continue adding more data (above was taken during 2 sessions, for a total of 16 minutes). Key is processing and levelling and Nebulosity does very well the job for most part in FIT format (the DDS function is great!) and I fine tune levelling, curves, color, denoising in GIMP on TIFF files (In gimp I also played on a 2 kind of " exposure blends" for getting the core and the faint areas: from the stack in Nebulosity, I only level the basic stack slightly for the core as 1 picture "low exposure" and levelled as much as I can for a 2sd picture "long exposure" -blowing then the core- and I compose both of them to get a nicer overall homogenous picture -which I think can be better made, I am still learning this method and a lot to be done on mask/blur/curves, above is my 1 st trial this route)... At the end of the day, more work spent on processing that taking the pictures ;-) All pictures in my gallery are taken with this Skymax 102 Alt Az goto and DSLR (included planets), I am quite amazed by what this little scope and a basic DSLR can do !!! (I am only starting amator astronomy and get that 1st scope 2,5 month ago). Note that I have the chance to live in almost a non light polluted area, I guess that helps.

You mentioned bridge camera, I don´t know if T rings can be used on a bridge.

Hi The skymax has the T tread at his rear to received directly T ring mounted on DSLR camera. So you only need the T ring for your DSLR and no need of a T adapter. Nevertheless, I have a T adapter in order to use a *2 barlow [the other jupiter picture in the gallery -not cropped- is using this set up in order to get a better magnification [also using avi capture with Movrec to get *5). see section 6: http://www.astro.shoregalaxy.com/dslr_astro.htm Note it exist some barlow which have also the T thread on it, so works also as T adapter + 2*barlow. Above picture is without barlow/without capture in Movrec [so no *5), a single camera shot, so rather small and it was cropped also quite a lot, The set up looks like that: The moon pictures in my gallery are using this set up: no barlwo/no *5 in movrec capture and pictures are not cropped, the moon fits perfectly in the FOV of the DSLR at prime focus. So I would recommand you, in case of Jupiter for example to have T adpater + barlow at prime focus. Anyhow, you will see most of other people recommand webcams for planets on top of EP. [i use the video with the DSLR, and works good enough for me/satisfies me, so I don´t really see a need for webcam today).