Whirlpool galaxy

[Triskellion]

Had a crack at some imaging night before last and after no end of troubles with camera actually managed to get a pic of a galaxy which actually resembles a galaxy. Its my first one and i know its a bit rubbish but trust me im chuffed it looks like a galaxy! will try to post it but bear in mind the jpg conversion made it look awfull and with the camera troubles i had i could only do 30sec exposures and didnt have time for darks etc so just a try out really need to fix my bulb cable and get back out there for a night on this one.

Whirlpool galaxy 20X 30sec no darks lots of headache.

Andy

[Greg]

Seems ok to me Andy..

What camera are you using??

I can't enlarge the image to have a better look...can you re-post it?

Greg

[dazza1639]

This should do it greg

Darren

[geppetto]

Well done mate

Nice start to galaxy shooting

[MikeD]

Very nice detail in this shot. 8)

A great start.

[lunator]

Andy

Congrats on the 1st pic

Looks like you have an excellent base to work from.

Cheers

Ian

[Triskellion]

Cheers guys for the kind comments i know its nowhere near the normal standard on here and has a million hot pixels and was done at iso 1600 due to no bulb working etc etc but im sure now i can get some good stuff.

i have got myself a copy of images plus now and am finding it much better to use for stacking i just need to sort out my lack of processing skill which i think will be the hardest part for me really. I seem to be able to get lots of details out but it always messes up the colours in the process. so far im pretty much blindly moving sliders to see what happens. Still need a good book really.

I also did some shots of the ring nebula and m13 il have a go at them tonight and if they are any good il stick them up for your constructive criticism.

Andy

[Helen]

I know the feeling Andy. I'm just about at the same point in the learning curve as you. I too was soooo chuffed at getting the whirlpool to look like the whirlpool (and it wasn't as good as yours). And I'm also at the play with the software and see what happens stage (problem is when something works I have little idea what I did to make it work and so can't repeat it!!) But its all good clean fun and I'm sure we'll both improve with all the help we'll get here!

Helen

PS I downloaded Ron Wodaski's New CCD Astronomy http://www.newastro.com/newastro/default_login.asp and have found it very helpful - it explains the basic terminology and principles and is also a book to grow into