My First DSO

[Sam]

Well here it is, my first ever DSO, M42. Shot from 1, 60 sec exposure with my newly modded Philips SPC 900NC.

I need to get the alignment sorted a bit better and work out what camera settings will give a reasonable picture. I am pretty happy I managed to get something on the camera and sort of get it focused though.

here it is:

(click to enlarge)

A tiny bit of processing in Gimp to move the middle of the levels.

cheers

Sam

[LostNSpace]

Hi Sam

Not a bad result for your 1st DSO, id be more than happy with that as a 1st.

Keep em coming

Mark

[radioactive]

Yes I agree not a bad attempt I hope my first go which is imminent will be as satisfactory

[legion48]

Nice first go LB.:-) Is that unguided?

[Sam]

um...err.. no, it's on a tracking mount (he says slightly embarrassed at the evidence of such poor polar alignment).

cheers

Sam

[CELESCOPE]

Hi Sam , its a good start , reminds me of my first one , taking the same subject , just keep at it now ,its along learning curve , Ah Tracking is not guiding Sam , with good polar alignment you should be able to get say 45secs unguided , depending on the focal length of the scope.

Rog

[Sam]

I'm going to have to upgrade my mount to get into guiding then - it's the basic HEQ5 without the the little computer thingy and the step motors.

[legion48]

I'm going to have to upgrade my mount to get into guiding then - it's the basic HEQ5 without the the little computer thingy and the step motors.

Don't rush into that yet LB. Try 30-45 second subs and lots of them. I bet you'll like the result. :-)

[Kaptain Klevtsov]

I'm going to have to upgrade my mount to get into guiding then - it's the basic HEQ5 without the the little computer thingy and the step motors.

Even the basic HEQ5 should get you 60 seconds without trailing if you get the polar alignement done with the inbuilt polar 'scope. No need to do drift aligning unless you go to 120 seconds.

Kaptain Klevtsov

[barkis]

Good effort LB. Things will improve dramatically when you get properly aligned.

When you know where a problem lies, you can fix it.

Ron.

[Sam]

Thanks Guys,

I'll work on sorting the polar alignment. It'll be a while before I'll save enough pennies to buy a good camera and hence not going to worry about the guiding malarkey until then. I have to admit I was a bit rough with the polar alignment as I wanted to see the camera in action as fast a possible - new toy excitement!

cheers

Sam

[MartinB]

Great first DSO LB. That's the fun of imaging, you see problems to be solved with every image and that's what drives you on.