First attempt at DS imaging. M42

[Redpaul]

I've had my telescope for a few weeks now so thought I'd borrow my brother-in-law's Canon d60 and give a bash at M42. I have the Skywatcher 200p and EQ5 Goto Pro so I know I'm at the lower end of AP but thought I'd give it a go anyway.

I only had a few minutes last night so this is only 6x30 secs and 6x20 secs plus darks.

I just used the default Deep Sky Stacker settings plus a few tweaks with levels and curves.

Any advice on how I could improve it gratefully accepted.

Great Orion Nebula (M42) by Paul S Wharton, on Flickr

Paul

[Black Knight]

Very creditable first go . M42 is actually pretty tricky to capture, ironically because it is so bright. You don't need long and you can easily burn out the Trapezium area (the very bright core). Many people get around this by taking two sets of exposures, with one set of quite short duration to capture the core without burning it out.

Your darks need to be of the same exposure length as your "lights". So for 30 second lights, you need 30 second darks. You need matching darks for each length of exposure you take. So if you took 30x 30 second lights and 30x 10 second lights, you would need a set of 30 second darks and a set of 10 second darks.

I think you'd find taking flats useful, they will help enormously with the vignetting you have in the corners.

Great start though And enjoy your journey to the Dark Side!

[Nosivad]

A nice image, but as I am not into AP I can't help with advice on how to improve it. Sorry!

[ryan]

Really nice image. Hope my first one is as good.

[LukeSkywatcher]

First attempt?

Damn.

[Redpaul]

Thanks guys

First attempt?

Damn.

Cheers.

I've been a keen photographer for a few years and only sold my gear at xmas to fund the 200p so I already had experience in DSLR's. Plus I've spent the 2 years I've been on this forum studying

Paul

[Coco]

Crikey... I wouldn't want to show you my first

Thats a cracking start.. Good advise from BK..

My advise is buy a 60D... or 1100D on the cheap ... it seems you have a talent.

[sanmatt]

very very nice indeed. (My 1st is rather shabby and no mistake)

[ollypenrice]

Well done. You picked one of the hardest targets in the sky as your first subject. It may be popular but, as Andy says, the dynamic range makes it a bit of a terror.

I used three data sets, 11 seconds, 50 seconds and 5 mins. This is the best way to combine them in my experience; Compositing 2 Different Exposures via Layer Masks

Olly

[en51nm]

Great image, I'm waiting in anticipation for my EQ5 dual axis motors so I can start capturing some images!

[Redpaul]

Well done. You picked one of the hardest targets in the sky as your first subject. It may be popular but, as Andy says, the dynamic range makes it a bit of a terror.

I used three data sets, 11 seconds, 50 seconds and 5 mins. This is the best way to combine them in my experience; Compositing 2 Different Exposures via Layer Masks

Olly

Thanks Olly

I've added that to my bookmarks.

Paul