My first M42 !

[leemanley]

I know you have seen it all before but I am a bit chuffed with my first effort on M42, taken at prime focus using the gear in my sig, what can I do to improve on this ?

[NickK]

That's nice - a good set of trapezium stars there.

If you save the image as 16bit png then people could have a play - I put this through PI and there's a lot more data in there but the JPEG compression ruins it.

Capture is part of the game - the processing after is another set of expertise!

[iksose7]

Nice Lee, how many subs went into this?

[Gina]

Very nice start

[leemanley]

Nice Lee, how many subs went into this?

Just the one 8 second iso 800 shot

[Guest]

Just the one 8 second iso 800 shot

the first thing to do is multiply the duration of your captures by 10 (guided) and take 20 of them - the more data the better - your setup is capable of some high definition colour shots - have fun!

David

[leemanley]

the first thing to do is multiply the duration of your captures by 10 (guided) and take 20 of them - the more data the better - your setup is capable of some high definition colour shots - have fun!

David

Thanks David, I've not got round to the guiding bit yet, as ever still loads to learn !

starting to see the limits of my camera, maybe time to go shopping, ccd time.........

[Quatermass]

Ah good old m42 I was so chuffed with my first shot of this wonderful sight. Keep going you can have loads of fun with this one.

Sent from my GT-S5670 using Tapatalk 2

[Antscope]

Thanks David, I've not got round to the guiding bit yet, as ever still loads to learn !

starting to see the limits of my camera, maybe time to go shopping, ccd time.........

I wouldn't kick that camera out of bed!

[mgirdwood]

even without guiding (tracking only) i would have thought you can push the time of subs up - i have the same mount and i hope it will do well past 30 secs before bad trailing kicks in. i have the Cannon 1100d unmod, not that different to yours ad it it will give many excellent photos before the move to the CCD - which will come eventually i know

keep going with the set up you already have and you will be amazed at what you can do. just ned some clear nights and a bit of patience ..

[ollypenrice]

You've picked a hard target to start on! The best results combine a stack of short exposures like yours with a stack of longer ones. The longer ones will get more of the outer stuff but blow the Trapezium.

Anyway, nice and sharp with good colour.

Your nubmer one priority needs to be to get the guiding sorted. Nothing else matters a tenth as much.

Olly

[mgirdwood]

i agree with Olly, Go for Guiding before the camera change, i am right at the beginning of this and my fingers itch to spend on a CCD but i know if i can get the guiding to work i can learn a heck of a lot ready for the big leap.

[Gina]

There's a huge amount you can do with a DSLR before moving on to an astro CCD