ring nebula image any help please

[proflight2000]

Hi all, well firstly I have actually got round to taking my first reasonable (well for me anyway) pic of a deep sky object. Not great I know but i have spent all evening taking photos and adjusting focus and basically ended up with the pic at this link. http://stargazrs.com/proflight2000/image/1165_large.jpeg

Would a pro please have a look and give me some advice as to how I may make it look better, i.e make the ring stand out, i do have a few dust bunnys on my chip but overall the problem I had with star trailing is getting sorted as can be seen in the image. Thanks for any help.

[geppetto]

One of the pros will help I'm sure with a bit of post tweaking

but that is a fine widefield image, well done 8)

[barkis]

Well if it's a pro you are looking for then I don't qualify. What I see is a very fine image of a deep sky subject that requires either a fairly long exposure, or many subs stacked. You need to give some info on the method you used to get this image. Then, someone with loads of experience will point you in the right direction.

I can only recommend you stop selling yourself short. If that is a first attempt at a DSO, then you ought to be pleased with yourself because it is quite a good result. I know I would be happy with it.

Ron.

[proflight2000]

Thanks gents, i used a canon 350d at 800iso and took the shot for 25 seconds, the camera was fixed directly into the focuser using a t and a 1/25 fitting. I actually took 9 shots but 7 of them were to get the camera at a rough focus and I have now marked my focuser to save some time later. I must say thanks must go to all on this site as the tips I have gathered have kept me from throwing this scope across the garden at times. I looked at the picture compared to starry night and it will give me plenty of fun marking the stars. Thanks all. Special thanks to Steve at FLO for listening to my gripe and getting me sorted out with the moonlite.

[radioactive]

Yep I agree with Barkis its a fine first attempt at a DSO I too would be pretty chuffed to get such a nice widefield image of this kinda quality

well done again

[mpeniak]

Not bad result at all mate! Your result is very similar to mine and M57 has very small apparent size and therefore we would need something like barlow to get close ups which would complicated thing a bit

Great shot anyway

Martin