1st guided image

[drumsolo]

Hi all,

This is my first ever attempt and auto guiding and capturing an image. Its certainly does not seem as daunting now I have done it using the Orion Starshoot and PHD, managed to get 4 min subs comfortably on M42 and post processed with CS5. Total of 8 x 4 min subs, no darks or flats though, something I need to work on. I am pleased with the results I am getting although I realise now I need a lot more subs.

I would appreciate some feedback to help me improve especially with the processing, not sure about removing gradients and vignetting without taking flats.

Thanks everyone for all your help and advice to date, this is such a great forum.

Stuart

[lukebl]

Nicely guided and a great image. There are signs of coma at the edges of the field. This is a well-known issue with Newtonians but which can be fixed with a coma corrector.

[SJJ]

Guiding looks really good Stuart. If you can get some flats that would eliminae the vignetting, other than that GradientXterminator is a great plug in for Photoshop for removing gradients and very easy to use. Dark really help to remove the camera noise and are dead easy to do, they just take some time. I would guess the next step in the processing would be to take some shorter exposures for the trapezium region and combine them with a layer mask so you pick out the detail in there.

[drumsolo]

Thank you for your replies. Should I be taking as many dark frames as light frames and the same with flats?

I have heard of layer masks but no idea what they do or how to create one, how do they work?

[cloudbuster]

nice one stuart. youv'e certainly laid the foundations for future imaging...just make sure if u can, to take your darks, flats and bias next time. as someone who has also just got the hang of guiding, i look forward to more.

cheers

bob