Let's see your 1st DSOs

[Wailin]

Here is my first attempt at astrophotography (M42 of course) taken 3 months ago from my back garden:

This is my third attempt at M42, this time from a relatively dark site in Feb, big improvement but still along way to go!

Now if only the weather improved to practice some more:)

[Gina]

Nice start

[Double Kick Drum]

Ok. These are some early attempts with my new Canon EOS 1100d.

No raw data, no stacking. Just working out best exposure time / ISO / focal ratio etc. Here goes...... Orion, Jupiter, the Hyades and Pleiades.

and one of Auriga, including M36, M37 and M38 if you look hard enough. Does that count as a DSO shot?

The next attempt will be with raw data and I will have a go at some basic stacking and maybe add a dark or two. I need to read 'Make Every Photon Count'. Trial and error only goes so far.

Edited March 14, 2013 by Double Kick Drum

[Gina]

Very good - I particularly like the top one

[IainMcD]

That top one is really nice!

What settings did you use? I have the same camera, so I'd like to have a go at this myself one day.

[Double Kick Drum]

That top one is really nice!

What settings did you use? I have the same camera, so I'd like to have a go at this myself one day.

I am still learning my way so don't take this as gospel.

The camera will need to be on a manual setting (M).

Focal ratios between f4.5 and f6.3. Lunar shots need a longer ratios to reduce the amount of light captured, I believe.

ISO between 800 and 3200

Shutter time between 15 and 30 seconds. Any longer and star trails become noticable - which is fine if that is what you are after.

All done with the standard 18 - 55mm lens.

The two I posted plus the others in my gallery are all single exposures. I used a basic photo shop programme to get better balance.

[DanH]

My very first astro picture taken on the day I received my CGEM, 3 years ago !

A single shot was taken.

Two weeks later, I tried M33, stacking approximately 30x3minutes with DSS.

Those 2 pictures were taken with a Canon EOS 550D connected to a Meade 127 APO

[DanH]

Well, single shot, but showing twice in a row

Sorry about that !

[Gina]

Nice shots

[IainMcD]

I am still learning my way so don't take this as gospel.

The camera will need to be on a manual setting (M).

Focal ratios between f4.5 and f6.3. Lunar shots need a longer ratios to reduce the amount of light captured, I believe.

ISO between 800 and 3200

Shutter time between 15 and 30 seconds. Any longer and star trails become noticable - which is fine if that is what you are after.

All done with the standard 18 - 55mm lens.

The two I posted plus the others in my gallery are all single exposures. I used a basic photo shop programme to get better balance.

Excellent, thanks. I just need to acquire a tripod!

[M L W]

Well, single shot, but showing twice in a row

Sorry about that !

Thanks for that! I was really trying to spot the difference!

[M L W]

My first DSO. Of course M42. Using a C8 (with focal reducer), Losmandy GM-8, Cannon 60D (not modded). Unfortunately couldn't manage anything more than 30 seconds, so had to crank up iso. Having problems, not with polar alignment, but with input voltage to the mount. It seems to give out in RA every so often and image drifts west just slightly enough to give me trails. I was told to try using more amps but stay at 12volts. I have been using 12v and 1amp. But going to try 12v 3amps to see of that fixes my problem. Hopefully it is just a power issue. It's a used gm-8, but everything looks good and sounds good.

This was roughly 12 X 30 sec, @ 3200 iso. Think I used 5 darks.

I would be plwased if any of me first pics look like any of these

[Oblong]

Here's my first shot, trying out a wide angle lens (24mm f/1.4) on a Nikon D700 from my back garden last winter. It was just practice for a Northern Lights trip to Iceland - but I was quite pleased with how it turned out.

And yes, there is something that draws us newbies towards M42, despite it being (as I now understand) quite a challenging object.

[Gina]

Nice one The good things about M42 are that it's big and bright so relatively easy to find and image but provides something challenging for virtually all levels of experience. You can even see it in your wide field image

[bomberbaz]

Ok just posting a quick one, well two. I am toying around with a smart camera and thought these were ok to say they were 16 second exposures at 5 times magnification. I altered them using MS standard editing software and was pleased to get what i did. I am hoping to use same camera with a barlow on my Skywatcher 104 to do similar simple images but with better quality next time.

This one is slightly better quality, you can just see M42

So not sure if this qualifies as a proper image as not done with a scope but fun none the less

Edited March 25, 2013 by bomberbaz

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

My first one is from quite a way back (January 1996, if I am right)

Hand guided for 15 minutes using the Celestron off-axis guider and Kelner illuminated reticle EP.

Camera: Contax RTS II

Lens: 8" F/10 SCT,

Method: prime focus with focal reducer to f/6.3, Celestron LPR filter used to reduce light pollution

Exposure: 15 min on 1600 ASA Fujichrome Sensia film

Corrector icing up caused a bit of blur, otherwise I was quite pleased at this first effort

[Scott]

My first one is from quite a way back (January 1996, if I am right)

Hand guided for 15 minutes using the Celestron off-axis guider and Kelner illuminated reticle EP.

Camera: Contax RTS II

Lens: 8" F/10 SCT,

Method: prime focus with focal reducer to f/6.3, Celestron LPR filter used to reduce light pollution

Exposure: 15 min on 1600 ASA Fujichrome Sensia film

Corrector icing up caused a bit of blur, otherwise I was quite pleased at this first effort

15 minutes hand guided..... you must have the hands of a surgeon and the patience of a saint Michael. Hats off to ya

Scott

[Amra]

Hand guiding... Wow, that's insane. Nice image!

My very first DSO image I took last week, it can only get better from here.

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

15 minutes hand guided..... you must have the hands of a surgeon and the patience of a saint Michael. Hats off to ya

Scott

Thanks! I did have an RA motor, and the GP mount allows very precise polar alignment. I was pleasantly surprised at how little I needed to adjust RA and DEC manually. Freezing cold, however!

My longest stint of manual guiding was at the Arcetri Observatory in Gornergrat in November 1983, as part of my BSc project. The 1.5m infrared scope they had was not that well aligned, and the software to correct deformation of the scope as you moved from zenith only made matters worse. I therefore had to hand correct this 1.5m beast by keeping a guide star inside a little box on a grainy CRT screen. Typically we would take IR spectra with integration times of 15 minutes, after which the data were transferred from instrument to computer tape (PDP11). That gave me 5-10 minutes to recover. We worked for about 7 hours each night taking loads of spectra. Longest integration time was 45 minutes. I was completely exhausted after that one.

[Baffa]

I actually have managed to get some "noise" from a DSO in the past but this is my first ever chance of actually capturing a DSO. My first scope was a Celestron 127 slt, complete unsuitable for DSO imaging, especially with a small web cam chip.

But now I have upgraded,

Skywatcher 200PDS

NEQ6

Canon 1100D

Philips SPC900NC, currently filling the guiding role.

My "first" DSO M51:

[Scott]

I actually have managed to get some "noise" from a DSO in the past but this is my first ever chance of actually capturing a DSO. My first scope was a Celestron 127 slt, complete unsuitable for DSO imaging, especially with a small web cam chip.

But now I have upgraded,

Skywatcher 200PDS

NEQ6

Canon 1100D

Philips SPC900NC, currently filling the guiding role.

My "first" DSO M51:

Thats a great first dso Robert, not an easy target for a first attempt I would think

[Gina]

Yes indeed - great fist shot - well done

[Baffa]

I actually have managed to get some "noise" from a DSO in the past but this is my first ever chance of actually capturing a DSO. My first scope was a Celestron 127 slt, complete unsuitable for DSO imaging, especially with a small web cam chip.

But now I have upgraded,

Skywatcher 200PDS

NEQ6

Canon 1100D

Philips SPC900NC, currently filling the guiding role.

My "first" DSO M51:

I had another go at processing this, tried to follow a couple of tutorials but I really need to work more with PS..

[Gina]

Very nice indeed

[Hairycamel]

Here's my first ever DSO from last night of M51. I took 10 subs of 2 minutes each at ISO 1600 but only 1 was useable as the rest had star trails which I think was down to a gusty wind. Anyway, here is my single sub with no processing. It's all plain sailing from here!