Horsey and friends a beginners bodge job

[symesie04]

Really not sure about posting this with all the quality on this forum, but hey. This is the result of 13 x 3 min exposures with a Modded 500d and a 100-400mm L at 200mm f5/6, iso 800. No darks (i know) not totally sharp, suffers from light pollution, poor polar alignment and dreadfull processing. Oh and did i mention the poor framing?. Other than that im quite happy with it at this stage of my learning curve.To be honest it was just a test to see what sort of results might be achievable and an idea of FOV.  Its blinking hard this astrophotography game isnt it?  Feel free to rip into it, i need to learn and learning by seeing your mistakes is the way to go.

Cheers for looking

Chris

[baggywrinkle]

I reckon that is pretty good. You have the Horse Head quite clear.

What did you mount the camera on?

[peter shah]

Nice framing,....post away there is always friendly advice here

[astro mick]

Nothing wrong with that.

[symesie04]

Thank you gents. Sorry it was mounted on a Astrotrac with wedge and a Mnafrotto 190ex.

[andyo]

That's a great effort the best advice I can give is  the more subs the better. Also use calibration frames darks, flats and bias they really help

[Gina]

That's a good start   Don't forget we all had to start and few get good images straight off.  My early images were certainly no better and most were a lot worse.

[StuartJPP]

Yep, don't be afraid to post, nothing wrong with it. Everyone here is learning/improving all the time. You have provided a lot of useful information in your post (kit, troubles encountered etc) and who knows, your image may inspire someone else to take up AP.

[Space Ranger]

Looks pretty good to me

[symesie04]

Thanks again all.

[SnakeyJ]

Great start there Chris - lovely wide angle view and nicely defined for quite short exposure times.   The horsehead and flame stand out really nicely.   Some more subs would help and perhaps some shorter ones for the brighter areas.

[PhotoGav]

That looks pretty darn impressive to me, good job!

Well worth posting, not everyone is an ace imager yet here (me, for instance!) and it's great to see everyone else's pics' - good, bad & ugly. You've chosen a very interesting FOV, not the usual.

I concur with other posts that more data will always give better results and darks are an absolute must with a DSLR. There's quite a gradient across the image, brighter to the right. Gradient Xterminator would probably help that disappear.

You say 'it's blinking hard this astrophotography game isn't it'... What a freakin' understatement that is!!!!!