first guiding attempt

[mindburner]

hi

I managed to get my Meade 127 and NEQ6 pro out for a couple of hours after work. I bought a St80, QHY5 and was using PHD tp guide. I had been reading up on a few posts regarding this combo (thanks Merlin) so I was able to get it guiding fairly quickly. Ye olde orange cloud was heading in at a rapid pace so only got 2x 4mins subs and 1x 2 min dark of the cigar galaxy.

Very orange background which I managed to reduce in nebulosity.

I must say I was very impressed with the guiding setup. For me as a complete newbie at imaging, the lack of serious star trails on most imges was very encouraging. This was much needed after poor weather and dropping my scope:(

The camera is an unmodded Nikon D5000 running camera control pro & a long shutter release mod. No filters

Basically I think I need help with reducing skyglow and also ampglow? in the images (brighness towards the centre of the image)

..Is it possible to use a barlow to get larger images?

..Also there seems to be a lot of noise in the imags, would more data/ darks help?

here's a few attempts on the cigar & whirlpool galaxy

whirlpool galaxy

[malc-c]

Very nice.

Well done...nice round stars.

[Viv]

Nice ones !

Good to get that first one under your belt (so to speak).

I will be doing the same very soon ........

[Freddie]

Nice start. One comment though, your darks should be the same exposure time as your lights.

[mindburner]

thanks Freddie. It's something I need to study to reduce noise. I also need to reduce the amount of light pollution, so I have ordered a baader Lp filter which hopefully will help.