M42 Help needed

[badboybubby]

If I wanted to take a picture of M42 using my SLR and 127 Mak on ALT AZ Goto whats the best settings to use on the SLR. I appreciate the mount isn't ideal but wondered if its possible to get any sort of image.

Any advice would be appreciated

Thanks

Scott

[ollypenrice]

You would probably do best to sacrifice everything for speed since in alt az, and close to the celestial equator, your exposure times will be very limited. I'd go for the fastest ISO, I guess.

Olly

[badboybubby]

Thats Olly

In the end, I could only get away with 5 sec exposures at 1600 ISO, any more and the stars were trailing.

Is there a simple way I can work out how many lights / darks I should take before stacking in DSS?

thanks

Scott

[badboybubby]

Here is the best image, this is my first ever Nebula. Any advice would be welcomed, remember, I only started in June and have basic equipment.

https://picasaweb.google.com/114675504770637064902/AstronomyPics?authkey=Gv1sRgCKHwwfbxg63VOw#5704293881625078018