Let's see your 1st DSOs

[Jonny_H]

I'll play.

My very first dso attempt at Orion. To be fair this was just a single 60 sec sub - no darks, no flats, nothing. It was a test image for focus/camera setting-fiddling purposes but technically my 'first' 

If I'm honest I was gobsmacked to see something on the screen! 🤣

Edited February 27, 2021 by Jonny_H

[breakstuff]

My first effort with Orion. About thirty 1.3 second shots as I didn't have tracking. I've since bought an Az Gti, which I haven't got round to using yet, so hopefully I'll be able to get some better shots soon. 

 

[Dazzyt66]

My first go at Orion with my Canon 1100d on my 150 Mak. 18 x 15 sec lights stacked in Siril (first time using that too!) and level adjust in Gimp. Out of focus I know, but I was just trying out for the first time in ages so I'm pretty happy  😃 

Edited March 20, 2021 by Dazzyt66

[irtuk]

This was mine based on the dates in my file collection, sometime around 7th July 2018. I'm not entirely sure what it's meant to be. possibly just "the sky"

I think at this time I had  an iOptron star tracker. 

Next I think I managed to capture Andromeda, this was certainly with the tracker and a Nikon D800e with a 70-200 lens and was when I decided to invest in a scope and a mount. I think I had just about got the idea of stacking but not calibration frames. 

 

myfile2.tif

[teoria_del_big_bang]

I wonder what percentage of newbie imagers have images of Orion Nebula and Andromeda Galaxy as their first images.
Or would it be the moon ?

I think with my Dob I did take some dodgy pics of the moon with my mobile but when I got an imaging setup Orion and Andromeda were certainly my first acquisitions 🙂 

 

Steve

 

Edited April 8, 2021 by teoria_del_big_bang

[irtuk]

On 08/04/2021 at 12:16, teoria_del_big_bang said:

I wonder what percentage of newbie imagers have images of Orion Nebula and Andromeda Galaxy as their first images.

Quite a few I would imagine!

[Karen Johnson]

After 6 months of research, getting help from members, getting my kit together, learning how to post process, I FINALLY got to do my first shoot this week and this is the result.  
 

Skywatcher ED80, Canon EOS 450d, modded with light pollution filter, EQ3 mount, using APT to control camera.  15 exposures of 120 sec, ISO 1600, 10 darks then the camera battery died!  Here it is, M81 and M82.  I think it is a bit noisy so next time will try ISO 800, also need to remove frame that had satellite trails.   Could not have done it without support from here and the lovely guy I bought my telescope from.  Next step, buy a dummy battery with usb power for camera.

[mackiedlm]

1 hour ago, Karen Johnson said:

After 6 months of research, getting help from members, getting my kit together, learning how to post process, I FINALLY got to do my first shoot this week and this is the result.  
 

Skywatcher ED80, Canon EOS 450d, modded with light pollution filter, EQ3 mount, using APT to control camera.  15 exposures of 120 sec, ISO 1600, 10 darks then the camera battery died!  Here it is, M81 and M82.  I think it is a bit noisy so next time will try ISO 800, also need to remove frame that had satellite trails.   Could not have done it without support from here and the lovely guy I bought my telescope from.  Next step, buy a dummy battery with usb power for camera.

Thats a really great first image. This is a wonderful hobby and with a start like that you have a great road in front of you.

[cfinn]

My first DSO image was of (surprise surprise) the Orion Nebula, but it was taken with a rather special instrument. A 20 inch Grubb Parsons Cassegrain. I was an Undergraduate student in Astrophysics at the University of Edinburgh at the time, and I took this image at the end of a research project using the telescope to estimate the distances and ages of star clusters in Auriga using multi-band photometry and Hertzsprung-Russell diagrams. Myself and my fellow project team members at the time couldn’t resist the chance to take a pretty picture after all the real science was done, so here it is, along with a picture of the telescope in situ from the link above. Members of Mid Kent Astronomical Society will doubtless be interested to see this as they are now the lucky benefactors of this scope following its decommissioning only a year or two after I graduated! The scope is currently being refurbished by members of the society and the hunt is on to find a new permanent home - details here.

[barbulo]

Here’s mine, taken last month with a SW 150P and an ASI224MC. No guiding.

These followed, taken with a Canon 600D and autoguiding. 

Then I sold my equipment and now awaiting for the new scope. Hope arrives soon. 

[Dazzyt66]

Well I’ve done a few single shot DSOs (including M42) but I will always consider this my first DSO image - a wide field of M81/82 (plus others!) taken from my Bortle 8 garden with my unmodded canon 1100d and my trusty ST80 - around 200 lights stacked with 60 Bias and 60 flats 😊

[AstroMuni]

Here is my first image. Its Bode's galaxy (M81) taken as a series of around 100 x 5sec exposures, no guiding, no darks or flats. Images captured using ASI224mc on Celestron 130EQ mounted on HEQ5 pro. Software used was Kstars/Ekos and post processing done in SIRIL.

[sclements]

This is my first attempt at DSO and I was frankly amazed at the final result considering my budget and far from optimal set up, location and my lack of any experience. I was using the session just to test and familiarise myself with the setup and acquisition using Astroberry with KStars/Ekos and expected to achieve nothing like the final result.

Location : My back garden ( Bortle 8 )

Date: 03 Mar 2021.

Scope: Celestron SLT 102. Camera: Unmodified Canon 450D. Mount: Skywatcher Az-Gti. 

30x 30secs subs ISO 800, 12 darks, 40 bias. 0 Flats (must get some method of doing these).

Stacked and processed in Affinity Photo, Topaz AI Denoise.

I think I may have caught the bug and entered the money pit of DSO imaging!

[Grifflin]

Ok, I'm new to AP but here is my first DSO (M42 of course!).  Taken with a Celestron Nexstar 6SE and associated Alt-Az mount so no guiding and no filter with a 73% moon.  Camera was a ZWOASI294MC. About 100 x 10s subs with darks, flats and bias.  All stacked and processed in Pixinsight.  Having got the camera refurbed from FLO I was anxious just to try something while waiting for an EQ mount etc etc.  This was very much a case of lets see what we can see night.

Second was first light with an RC8 (just as it came out of the box so no view on collimation) on a CEM70 mount on M81 (new gear had finally arrived!).  Unguided, 34 x 60s, flats, darks and bias.  ASI294MC, no filters and 93% moon.  All processed in Pixinsight.  This was the first run out with the new rig and also using NINA for the first time.

Lots of issues and I have a list as long as my arm of things I need to work on here but for me, a happy start....shame we are moving into the summer months.

Neil

[newbie alert]

My first dso was with my newly modified canon 100d, avx and 8 inch sct.. think they was 2-3 min exposures unguided

I'm going to go back on m42 again at the end of this year and redo it

Edited May 2, 2021 by newbie alert
Added info

[Ollyb]

First DSO I ever saw/imaged on my rig, 120 sec exposure with Luminance filter... single frame but was a massive WoW‼️

 

 

 

 

 

Edited May 7, 2021 by Ollyb

[MillHey Nebula]

So this was my first DSO - M42.  It has got me hooked and started me on an upgrade path to rapidly deplete my bank account.  This was taken through my wife's Orion StarBlast 4.5 - £180 for scope and mount with another £40 for a tracking motor, where the tracking speed is set manually by twiddling a knob until the star trails don't look too bad!  I will confess, I had treated myself to an Altair Astro GPCAM2 290c camera.  I had also read "Astrophotography is easy" so I knew to take a number of lights (100 @15s) and even did the corresponding darks.  I soon realised that TIFs were not a good way to go (I had come from a background of over 20 years of conventional digital photography) if I wanted an easy life without using PIPP. I recorded these as FITS and stacked and processed them using Affinity Photo, which I had already been using for a couple of years for landscape photography. 

So now I have a decent mount (CEM26) and have just set up autoguiding and that seems to have jinxed the whole thing - no astronomical darkness for  another three months or so and continual clouds and rain!

[Clarkey]

Having purchased a scope and mount in January 2020 (with not intention to image for a while), I got bitten by the bug and within a couple of months was looking to start photography. The first is the first DSO I imaged in April last year. Single 3 minutes exposure with a SW 200p, unguided using a Canon 600D (unmodded at the time) on an HEQ5 (again unmodded at the time). Not see what I was imaging, just pointed the scope and hoped it was in the right place. To give a comparison the second image is one I took at the beginning of March - less than a year later. This was using an ASAI1600mm with an RC8 guided on an AZ-EQ6 and about 20 hours of data. Just goes to show that with a bit of work (and money) things do improve.

 

 

[MKR]

After finally receiving my 200P + HEQ5, I've got my first photo of M81 + M82. I didn't get flats right I think, because there was an annoying area which was brighter and hard to even out later on. It's about 50 minutes of exposure (ISO 1600, 60s each) + 15 darks + 15 bias + 20 (not very) flats photographed with a stock 5D mk iv. Unguided. No matter what I did it seems like there's a lot of noise, very grainy so I had to remove noise in post-processing. The overall result looks very blurry unfortunately. Overall though, I'm pleased with my first image!

Any pro tips for the future? Perhaps it was just too bright outside, or too much LP?

My next target is M101 - it's much higher I suspect it will be easier (?)

 

Thanks for looking!

Edited June 8, 2021 by MKR

[ONIKKINEN]

My very first DSO astrophoto from last september. Taken with a DSLR at 100mm focal length piggybacking on a Celestron Asstromaster 130MD. The motor kit allowed me to take 12 second exposures without noticeable trailing. This is i believe around 12 minutes of exposure, processed in DeepSkyStacker and GIMP. I didnt know what i was doing at the time so that is why there is a gradient, satellite trails and weird colours.

 

Still this started my descent into the rabbit hole and neither the bottom or the hole in which i fell are visible anymore.

[JamieA]

My first ever semi successful evening, comments good or bad very welcome - Esprit 100ed, eq6r pro asi1385mc with OPT l-extreme - processing may have hindered my results as still learning but i’m pleased with what I achieved first night out ! 
 

cocoon nebula 

[Astro Noodles]

Taken back in March with a camera lens which cost £30 off fleabay, no polar alignment and a wobbly mount with an after-market RA motor.

I wish I could say I've made huge progress since then, but this is a long journey.

 

[nephilim]

Ok, so this is my first image & first time at processing, I chose PixInsight for this which I found hard work but very pleased with my progress so far in the past 3 days. I decided to try the Hubble Palette although I processed it normally to start with & also posted a starless Hubble version in the Samyang thread yesterday as the stars are far from perfect.
After obsessing for a while I decided to start all over again & keep the stars as I prefer them in. After many years of wanting to do this I'm loving the journey so far.

Equipment used as per my signature.

IC1396 From Bortle 3/4
50x180 Lights
30xDarks but no flats as i'm just getting my head round these (vignetting is apparent).
Optolong L-eXtreme Filter

Thanks for looking & all CC welcomed

Steve

[HEXZ0R]

my first DSO which is not captured with Telescope , but with a DSLR 

Canon 650D with 55-250mm f/4-5.6 lens
pictures are made on 135mm f5 at 6400 ISO

No tracker , just tripod

600x3s lights
50x3s dark
stacked in DSS
and a lot of post processing 

[chemistorge]

My first attempt back in Nov 2017 of Orion.

 

and a screenshot (I lost the original processed file and haven’t reprocessed the data yet) of my effort last February.