Let's see your 1st DSOs

[happy-kat]

You'll find lots of information and inspiration on that link it is all from members with altaz mounts.

[Stub Mandrel]

30 minutes ago, Miguel1983 said:

but i'm limited in exposure time to max 8 - 10 seconds due to the AZ mount.

Check out that thread - people there are getting 30 seconds to a minute before field rotation is spoiling their images. Its all about getting the best out of an AZ mount.

[Captain Scarlet]

My first DSO image, taken Sep 2017 on an EOS7D/2 + 300mm f/2.8 , 9 x 50 secs tracked on an AZ-EQ6 GT (using alt-az) from a really quite dark place near Baltimore in SW Ireland. Stacking in Pixinsight and curves in Photoshop. TBH I was a bit shocked (in a good way). I'm looking forward to improving it...

Edit: each "sub" was 50-odd seconds, f/2.8, ISO 1600 . I recorded 12 in all, but I rejected 3.

 

Edited February 7, 2018 by Captain Magenta
extra exposure information

[tooth_dr]

Found this old one on a photobucket account.

My first HH nebula 2009 and my second attempt this winter:

 

[DazC]

This is my first attempt using a Skywatcher 250px and a smartphone on a smartphone holder. 

The Orion nebula. 

 

D.C

[Z3roCool]

After 3 months of getting my first setup together, finally had a chance to try everything out. Other than a few initial issues with targeting got to grips with putting into practice everything I had read. Other than some dodgy colouring in processing, fairly happy with my first ever session. 

Tom. 

[steveinhants]

The ever popular Orion Nebula was my first DSO - captured a couple of weeks back.  Mixture of 4 mins, 2 mins, 1 min and 30 sec subs, unguided.  Stacked in Pixinsight and processed in PS.  

HEQ5, SW ED 80 DS, Canon 5d mkii

 

Steve

[angryowl]

A bit late to the party but here goes...

My first ever astrophotography image of Pleiades was with a FinePix S5700 7.1 MP camera using the full 10x optical zoom on it, 800ISO, F3.5. 22 images in total, each of 4 seconds done on a tripod stacked in DSS and no further processing done on it. So plenty of field rotation there... Taken on the 7th of November 2015.

I know, laughable compared to the stunning ones seen here but still take a bit of pride in it and shall be keeping it as a memory.

 

Edited April 2, 2018 by angryowl

[Tomatobro]

First DSO with our Esprit150, Morvan CCD, 2x5 mins luminance, red green and blue. Mesu200 mount.

Tomato did all the hard work setting up and taking down the equipment, me 170 miles away looking in using TeamViewer.

We had a problem of the mount "sinking" into the lawn and we know that the field flattener is not positioned correctly.

Also include a picture of our stepper motor focuser with temperature compensation via Hitec controller.

M51

 

[ph0t0gr4ph3r]

This is a nebula I randomly pointed my camera at the other night. I'm not 100% sure, but I believe it is b89 (or at least near b89). I am pretty new to serious AP, so getting this shot was great. It is a stack of 15 6s frames, untracked. I'm currently working on editing a picture I got of the Orion nebula, which was taken right before it set (you couldn't even see Rigel at that point), and I can't wait to see how it turns out!

Edit: The reason this picture is so overly-blue is because it was pretty much taken during a full moon (98%). I live under class 4 skies (yellow zone) and if it were a new moon, you would be able to see a lot more.

Edited April 29, 2018 by ph0t0gr4ph3r

[Minhlead]

My very first DSO the other night. After a whole month of cloudy sky the heaven finally clear a few hours so I can peak at it for 5 minutes before it's cloudy again

C8SE Alt-Azm mount, Sony A7s unmodded 9x8s at 51200 ISO. UHC filter

[Miguel1983]

My first attempt at a DSO with my Skywatcher Evostar 80ED + 0.85 Reducer on the Skywatcher EQR-Pro, guiding with PHD2 and the Rising Tech IMX178 camera on a basic Skywatcher finder using a adapter ring from FLO.

5 x 5min subs, 7 Darks and 21 Bias frames taken with the Canon 750Da with Baader Moon and Skyglow filter.

Curves in Corel Aftershot Pro3 (Anyone else using Corel ?)

 

Edited August 5, 2018 by Miguel1983

[Stub Mandrel]

31 minutes ago, Miguel1983 said:

Curves in Corel Aftershot Pro3 (Anyone else using Corel ?)

I bough Paint Shop Pro last year. Much nicer than Photoshop to use but doesn't have the 'astro actions'.

I have Corel Suite 10 with Photopaint which is what I use for all my quick and dirty processing, it has a few things that work really well on ordinary images

 

[Miguel1983]

16 minutes ago, Stub Mandrel said:

I bough Paint Shop Pro last year. Much nicer than Photoshop to use but doesn't have the 'astro actions'.

I have Corel Suite 10 with Photopaint which is what I use for all my quick and dirty processing, it has a few things that work really well on ordinary images

 

Is this Corel Suite 10 the precursor of Atershot, i see no mention on it on the Corel Site.

Most people doing astrophotography i see are using photoshop, so i wonder if Corel is as good, in other words, could my images be better processing them with photoshop ?

I bought Corel because i don't like the subscribing policy of photshop, i like to pay once and own the program.

€290/year for photoshop is a bit steep i think.

Edited August 5, 2018 by Miguel1983

[Stub Mandrel]

2 minutes ago, Miguel1983 said:

Is this Corel Suite 10 the precursor of Atershot, i see no mention on it on the Corel Site.

It was big in the 1990s....

Edited August 5, 2018 by Stub Mandrel

[Miguel1983]

6 minutes ago, Stub Mandrel said:

It was big in the 1990s....

Oh i see ?

[Giampiero Baggi]

I was very, VERY young when i took my first ever DS photo. I borrowed a DSLR from my uncle along with some lenses and shot some long exposures of the milky way. I realized that there was something blurry on one side, so i decided to focus on that area and get some "closer" photos. I later found out that the smudge i was photographing was the andromeda galaxy (and this is the story of how i discovered DSOs as a newbie).

I stopped doing "serious" AP for about a year, and now that i have a lot more knowledge i'm starting this wonderful hobby again!

Here are my 2 first photos! (you can see the spots on the sensor, the camera i used when i first started was very old :P).

For the milky way I did 9x20sec exposures, and for andromeda I don't really remember. Both taken from Viticuso,Italy.

[6footgeek]

Brand new here, so this is the first DSO that I took on purpose, 4 days ago.

Andromeda Galaxy from my super light polluted back garden near Birmingham, UK.

Canon 450D

Canon 18-55mm stock lens. 

Amazon basics tripod!

100 x lights @ 8 seconds - 55mm - ISO 800

20 x Darks

20 x Flats

20 x Bias

 

Edited September 28, 2018 by 6footgeek

[Stub Mandrel]

Nice one, you can see M32 clearly and hints of M110.

You can get away with stretching that more aggressively and pull out more galaxy, as it isn't very noisy.

[6footgeek]

8 minutes ago, Stub Mandrel said:

Nice one, you can see M32 clearly and hints of M110.

You can get away with stretching that more aggressively and pull out more galaxy, as it isn't very noisy.

Thanks! - I'll get onto that tonight  Learning all of the many tricks in photoshop I think is the biggest struggle of all of this. I also have a bunch of longer exposures which I might stack onto there tonight and see if that yields some different results!

[Rodd]

On 07/02/2018 at 10:11, tooth_dr said:

Found this old one on a photobucket account.

My first HH nebula 2009 and my second attempt this winter:

 

Quite a difference--though to be fair to your old self--RGB is tough to compare to Ha!

Rodd

[Rodd]

9 minutes ago, 6footgeek said:

Thanks! - I'll get onto that tonight  Learning all of the many tricks in photoshop I think is the biggest struggle of all of this. I also have a bunch of longer exposures which I might stack onto there tonight and see if that yields some different results!

Drop the black point a bit 23/23/23 in PS and the galaxy will pop--you can do this simultaneously with stretching.  Longer exposures will bring out the spiral arms but may blow the core, depending on your system.  

Rodd

[calli]

As the images get better and better for first ones I put in my images here ? to encourage beginners ?

https://goo.gl/photos/fN794VnbNKKwXzdv7

From bottom of the album you can see my progression (or not..) all don on a non-astrofoto mount (NexStar SLT Alt/Az Goto). Orion Nebulae is indeed my first DS image.

Cheers,

Carsten

[AstroCava]

Mi first DSO in 2003, with a CANON PowerShot and my recently adquired Meade LX200GPS 8"... I was so proud of it?

[Lehtojj]

What a wonderful thread and great inspiration!

This is my first DS image. I recently found my M45 subs from last year when I bought my first scope. Haven't had time for this hobby since, but I've read a lot about astrophotography. Also my first go with Photoshop processing.

Skywatcher 150p

Eq6 mount

Canon 600d unmodded

I think it was 32 x 30s subs, stacked in DSS and processed in Photoshop. No calibration frames as I didn't know of them at the time.

Ps. I'm waiting for my new ED80 to arrive next week.

J