First DS shot - tell me where i'm going wrong!

[heathenwoods]

During a brief gap in the clouds last night I managed to try out my eq5/150pl/1000D set up on the Pleiades. It was a very brief attempt with 'good enough' polar alignment (no polarscope yet). I'm already hankering after a short, quick scope (if that's what I mean, I'm very much at the base of the learning curve) but apart from that what should I consider?

it 8x15s lights and 5 darks.

The stars seem really overlit and I can't work out what the faint red haze is. I'll not even post my 'andromeda' (or large orange murk) as by then it was getting foggy and the streetlights' light seemed to invade all my shots. Anyway, a small part of the Pleiades, jpegged and shrunken:

[Bizibilder]

Not much wrong with that. Which, I suspect, surprised you! The darker edge is called vignetting and can be cured by taking flat frames. The red is down to a mixture of colour balance in processing and light pollution.

A very swift play in Photoshop produced this: (Hope you don't mind! - and sorry about the black surrounds to the bright stars)

[heathenwoods]

That is a pleasant surprise! Thank you. Flats are my next step as will be trying to use APT before getting a polarscope and bakhtinov (sp?)

Thanks for giving the image a bit of a tweak; I quickly realised that what I keep reading about processing being as time consuming as the actual imaging is very true!

[Bizibilder]

May I suggest the book "Making Every Photon Count" by Steve Richards (from FLO - Usual Disclaimer from me) as it will tell you all you need to know to get going as well as the traps and pitfalls - well worth its modest cost.

[Velvet]

good attempt and not a lot wrong. flats definitely

Velvet

[heathenwoods]

Cheers.

I'll check out flats - on the surface they sounds like an arcane art but I'll give it a go!

Making Every Photon Count has been added to the top of my long list of things I need to pick up,,,