Let's see your 1st DSOs

[Alien 13]

And the halo is from me doing a gradient removal in photoshop not know how to do it but watching a quick video.  Its sort of cool, but it would be better if I had gotten rid of the halo.  Funny the halo didn't stand out until I posted it up.  Much more noticeable here then on my screen.  Strange.

I followed the gradient removal tutorial and could never get it to work so i did the 1st few steps then inverted it and used one of the standard blend modes.

Alan

[Rudeviewer]

I am going to try reprocessing on pixinsight see what I can come up with.

[Rudeviewer]

Here is the PNG file that I was told to try.  Definatly no halo using Pixinsight.  Now I just need to pay for the program cuz my trial is almost up lol.

[Rudeviewer]

Guess I should open it in photoshop and stretch it.  Its a lil dim now.

[Alien 13]

Guess I should open it in photoshop and stretch it.  Its a lil dim now.

Much better though the halo is gone.

Alan

[Rudeviewer]

Streteched a bit much but here it is a bit brighter. 

[Alien 13]

Streteched a bit much but here it is a bit brighter. 

Thats a cracking image i would be happy with that, you will find you will re use your subs as you learn more im still at that stage.

Alan

[rigellim]

Hi all,

This was my first DSO shot back in 2007, using Nikon point and shoot camera E5600, afocal over Orion Starblast 4.5" EQ.

I was really proud of it back then.

[Zadoq]

Our first 3 attempts at imaging DSOs, all with Advanced VX mount and modded Canon 1100D:

• M82 (with the supernova): C8 Edge HD, unguided
• Heart nebula IC 1805: William Optics GT 81, guided; the seeing conditions were poor (nearly full moon)
• Orion nebula M42: William Optics GT 81, guided. For that one, we also took shorter exposures for the core

We are quite pleased with our progress so far and we have a lot to thank to "Making every photon counts" and the advice we've been getting at our local astronomy society

[XCalRocketMan]

Here are some of my first attempts with my Celestron EdgeHD-11. The Pleiades is through a Tamron 270mm f/6.3, the rest at prime focus of the C11.

[Russe]

Excellent quality for first attempts!!

[IainMcD]

Really nice.

Is that Supernova in M81 still about? I keep meaning to image it!

[Russe]

M82 - and yes - still there!

[Andy Milner]

My first attempt at anything other than the moon or jupiter.

Hope you like...

[Hope the image hasn't been compressed by this website too much]

It's one shot 15 seconds

1600 iso

canon 100d

prime focus on my SW200P

Quite chuffed as I also learnt how to use photoshop for first time today using curves, levels.

Andy.

[Andy Milner]

My first attempt at anything other than the moon or jupiter.

Hope you like...

[Hope the image hasn't been compressed by this website too much]

It's one shot 15 seconds

1600 iso

canon 100d

prime focus on my SW200P

Quite chuffed as I also learnt how to use photoshop for first time today using curves, levels.

Andy.

1100d [typo]

[neil groves]

_{I'd be more than pleased with that as a first M42 shot, now you have something to work with and practice some processing with.}

_Neil.

[Rudeviewer]

Nice single shot.  Take a few of those and stack them in DSS and see what you can come up with.  I am still a beginner as well.  I was told to save the format as a PNG, and it will show a lil more detail.  You should be able to get anywhere from 60 to 120 seconds from a good alignment, so if you take a few at 400, a few 800, a few at 1600 iso and stack em,  you can get a lot more to come out.  Also make sure you are shooting in RAW.

[XCalRocketMan]

Excellent quality for first attempts!!

Thanks ... I've still got a way to go. All my images have been short exposures since I'm still playing around with the scope, the mount, setting and aligning it, etc. etc.  Once I get to know the equipment and software better I'll concentrate on one object and see what some 1hr exposures+ will get me.

Been able only to get 60sec to 1.5 min subs currently as I don't have any auto-guiding scopes/cameras. Planing on adding auto-guide equipment by the end of the month.

[IainMcD]

Looks pretty nice. Orion is a good place to start.

[guiseppe]

As I just managed my first successful deep sky image a couple of days ago, I figured this thread would be good place to put it. 

M42, 41x15s, 50 darks, 50 flats.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/prr761kqepdrn1k/M42.jpg

[tingting44]

my 1st galaxy with the SW 130-pds + DSLR, no guiding, Polar aligned only, 60 x 1min subs 

M51

M51 (whirlpool galaxy) {Re-process #2} by tingting44, on Flickr

[Andy Milner]

Guiseppe: nice! Out if interest as it's your first, which method did you use to take flats? I've only managed one stack of subs, darks and bias so far. I'm keen to know how you got on taking flats? I'm rarely able to take any in daylight. So I'm wondering what method works well for my 8" scope. I've heard a white t-shirt and a torch shined at it works well but to me it sounds like it might create unevenness. I'm considering holding my laptop screen up with a white background displayed although that dies not cover the end of the scope fully. So might try and see if it fills the scope with light. Cheers!

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[guiseppe]

Guiseppe: nice! Out if interest as it's your first, which method did you use to take flats? I've only managed one stack of subs, darks and bias so far. I'm keen to know how you got on taking flats? I'm rarely able to take any in daylight. So I'm wondering what method works well for my 8" scope. I've heard a white t-shirt and a torch shined at it works well but to me it sounds like it might create unevenness. I'm considering holding my laptop screen up with a white background displayed although that dies not cover the end of the scope fully. So might try and see if it fills the scope with light. Cheers!

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

First of all: Thanks! I'm glad you like it. Secondly, I made a mistake, I meant to write bias, not flats. I haven't yet figured out how to take them either.

[Andy Milner]

Ahh okay. Great image nonetheless. Well done!

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[sytra]

My first attempt at Orion Nebula M42 not the best, taken with 1 x 45s exposure at prime with a Sony A200, scope is a SW ST102 on an SLT mount, the only post processing was to darken the sky and remove some noise. Got to practice more, but overall reasonably pleased.