My first DSO

[Hitesh]

Well this is my first ever DSO and too be honest i don't know if I can get anything extra out of it post process wise, I'm using CS5 and I've adjusted the levels and curves a touch, but can i get anything more out of it and also the stars at the edge of the frame seem to be warped how can I reduce or even remove this?

Thanks in advance

[Astro_Gaz]

great first effort mate, how long were the exposures and how many of them did you take?

[Hitesh]

That was 16x60sec lights, darks and i think it was 30ish bias frames but no flats

[iksose7]

Looking good a couple dust lanes visible

[nytecam]

Good start - flats will smooth out the vignetting into the corners and a final trim of the dead edges would help too. 

[Hitesh]

right well i've just tried tweaking levels and curves a bit more and seem to have gotten a bit more success, but ive got a nasty gradient too......

[Astro_Gaz]

2nd image is much better, have a snoop around on here or youtube for some processing help as you clearly have the data nice capture mate

[Naemeth]

The detail is definitely there, you just need to remove that gradient. If only I knew how to do that, oh well  .

Good luck with the processing . 

[AstroAndy]

There are diff. ways to remove grads..a quick one is w/ a free tool by Molecular Expressions, the Background Subtraction Toolkit, disadvantages are it works only on jpgs, is small, and converts images into psd files (photoshop format), so it's one more step to reconvert it into jpg. There's also a gradient map in PS.