M42 betweeen the clouds

[Sam]

The clouds rolled back for a brief 45mins last night so I got the scope out and took my first shot through the scoipe with the 400D (the others have been with 400D mounted on top of the scope for widefield shots). After a very rough drift align (the clouds looked threatening again) I managed to get 12 exposures of 30secs - 4 of them were rubbish, two due to clouds, and two due to my too quick drift align. The resulting 8 ok frames (with no darks, forgot them!) were stacked and processed, very gently in Gimp and here's the result:

(click to enlarge)

I'm quite happy with this, but next time:

1. better drift alignment.

2. better focus.

3. take some shorter exposures to merge with the longer one to preserve some detail on the core.

4. more exposures.

cheers

Sam

[LostNSpace]

A very nice image LB for 4 mins in total.......yes more exposures are the key but this attempt has given you something to build on......

Keep up the good work

Mark

[jgs001]

Nice one Sam, Only 4 minutes worth, Excellent.

[MartinB]

Well done Sam. Some very nice nebulosity showing up

[Kai]

Thats not too shoddy at all Sam

[Beyond_Vision]

Well done Sam if you follow your list and if the weather is fine you will have it cracked.

Regards

Kevin

[CELESCOPE]

Thats a very nice image Sam well done , good colour as well ,

Cheers

Rog

[Parallax]

For a first go through the scope, I would say that's excellent.

My Dad's having no end of trouble with his 400D and my 102mm refractor.

Well done

Steve

[radioactive]

very nice indeed Sam, for the limited time on exposures .Can't wait until you get the clear skies there will be no stopping you then 8)

[Sam]

Thanks guys for your really positive comments!

I've had a bit more of a play with processing:

(click to enlarge)

Not actually sure if it's improved it or made it worse - useful exercise though.

Sam