Let's see your 1st DSOs

[GrantEb]

Hi

New here, here's one of mine.

Ring nebula, Skywatcher 130 reflector, 1000d EOS, 1 * 1m30s

Cheers

[yesyes]

Hi

New here, here's one of mine.

Ring nebula, Skywatcher 130 reflector, 1000d EOS, 1 * 1m30s

Cheers

That is quite good for the first attempt, especially since it's only a single exposure...

[gary1968]

Nice image, considering the shortness of the exposure. A great 1st attempt, keep 'em coming.

Gary

[Stephen Greenfield]

north american nebula and cygnus with associated nebula (widefield)

single exposures on modded 1000d , one with 28mm m42 lens, second on 200mm m42 lens

[Gary]

OK, my first just a few nights ago and I'm still processing it.

M31 and M110 (I think), widefield using a Cannon 1000D EOS unmodded just piggybacked on my telescope (no guiding). 50 1 min exposures at ISO 800 stacked in DSS and in the process of being tweaked in a trial version of Adobe CS5

[carldr]

Hi all,

This was my first attempt at imaging a DSO. Canon 500D attached to a Equinox 80ED, unguided. 26 x 30s subs, (IIRC) three darks, at ISO 800, processed in DSS.

I've just posted a subsequent attempt here : http://stargazerslounge.com/imaging-deep-sky/118562-first-guided-image-m31.html.

Regards,

Carl.

Edited November 1, 2010 by carldr

[p1taylor]

this is a very eraly one 20x30 seconds rcx10" in alt/asm.

peter

[IvanT]

this is a very eraly one 20x30 seconds rcx10" in alt/asm.

peter

It's shots like this (short subs, early efforts etc) that really keep me enthused about this wonderful hobby. I'll definitely be hunting this one down.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Electron]

These are my first attempts with Hyperstar, standard Canon 40D and a CGEM1100.

All taken on 02/03 Nov 2010.

All were processed with Nebulosity (first attempt at using this also) using a master dark from a stack of 6.

Andromeda is a stack of 44

Pleiades is a stack of 14

M57 is a stack of 14

Oiron Nebula is a stack of 15.

I know I have rushed to get to this stage, no polar alignment, very brief collimation of the Hyperstar but I couldn't wait to see what I could do with the setup.

Been held up using the setup for a while now due to being away working then got home to Clouads and high wind and have a bad shoulder, torn tendon, so had to rest a while before I could even move the setup outside at all.

[IvanT]

Nice work Denis, off to a flying start.

[johnnychaos]

This was my first attempt... taken using a Meade DS2070 and 5mp Canon Powershot little compact camera. I mounted it to the scope's eyepeice using a toilet roll and some masking tape! hehe.

It took a few attempts, but I managed to get 3 photos using the cameras limited manual settings and stacked them in photoshop.

[Petrol]

I took this pic last year with a Nikon D70s, 70mm lens so I guess this is my first

Decided to have a closer look and bought a 200 Newt, EQ5 with GOTO. Think it was 1 min @ 800 iso.

I also took this one of M31 but it's a bit poor

Looking at some of the pictures posted in this thread, I have a lot to learn

It's good fun though

Pete

[Zakalwe]

My very first DSO (gosh...I feel proud...my BABY!!!).

Its one of about 40 images I have taken (and also have about 40 darks as well)....so I am hoping to have a play in Registax to see what I can make of this.

I have had a little tweak in PS, but I think that there is a lot more that can be done with this (I hope!).

Canon 50D, prime focus on Nexstar 8GPS. 35 second exposure, ISO800

[swag72]

Here is my very first image and DSO last week - M45. This was taken on the second or third outing with my 5D2, Skywatcher 120ED and HEQ5 mount. I've had the setup for about 8 months, but only recently plucked up the courage to try the polar alignment etc. This was a number of subs at 45s I think and a couple of darks. With what I have learned about processing in the last week, I will go back and look at it again at some stage, but for the moment, here it is ............

The Pleiades - M45 by swag72, on Flickr

[Jannis]

Well, he's my very first image, of orion m42. a rather big failure i'd say. taken with a skywatcher capricorn (70mm refractor, 900mm focal), unguided, on an EQ1 mount. unsure about exposures and so.

also a pic of jupiter. same scope. unknown amount of frames (was taken with pics, not video).

then, he's my first dso of M31 from yesterday, in almost stormy winds.

18 light, 6 dark, ISO 800 30 sec unguided. taken with explorer 200P DS on HEQ5 pro and canon 550D/T2I. run trough DSS and tuned a tiny bit on brightness, that's all.

Edited January 1, 2011 by Jannis

[rfdesigner]

I'm still looking out my first image (on film in a box, under other boxes).. I thouhgt it would be interesting to look at what they first got from the king of scopes. The HST.

well at least it isn't M42!

Derek

[SeedyF]

Oh well, here goes.

I took the plunge of attempting proper polar alignment on Saturday 8/1/11 (a real challenge as it was only 9pm, light pollution is bad, Polaris is above my neighbours house from the limited area I can observe from making the light worse) the plan was to attempt a first DSO using M42 in Orion.

I started with Betelgeuse to check focus and was fairly happy. Tried a 30 second then a 60 second exposure at ISO400 - well the second image was like a Tango advert was being played out the sky was so orange!! So I had to stick to the 30 second exposure.

This is the result using a f5 6"/150mm Skywatcher reflector on a motorised EQ3-2 mount. No filters. File format was Jpeg, 30Secs at ISO400, white balance sunlight. No darks, flats, lights or anything else - I just wanted to try a basic shot. Minimal processing to sharpen slightly and adjust the contrast to reduce the skyglow.

Edit to add it was taken with a Canon400 DSLR coupled direct to the scope.

As a first go I was fairly satisfied but had clearly not got the polar alignment spot on as the stars are starting to trail. Next stop is a darker site where I can see what's going on in the polar scope and end up with a darker image.

Be gentle please

Edited January 13, 2011 by SeedyF

[carldr]

As a first go I was fairly satisfied but had clearly not got the polar alignment spot on as the stars are starting to trail. Next stop is a darker site where I can see what's going on in the polar scope and end up with a darker image.

Be gentle please

I think that's pretty good really, and I bet that if you had taken a bunch of 30s exposures and stacked them, you'd have got something you'd be very proud of.

Regards,

Carl.

[ythanpythan]

Ok here goes, 17 Lights 10 Darks on a Canon 50D prime focus on my Skywatcher 150P. I've not got the drive for my mount yet although it was put in the post today (thanks FLO) so I kept the exposures to 1 Second at ISO1600 and tracked by hand.

Cheers

Ian

[opticalpath]

Maybe I can claim the oldest-technology DSO image here. I took this image of M45 whilst I was at Glasgow University in 1975. We had access to a Grubb-Parkins 20" telescope (on a poor site) which had a piggy-backed wide field camera that took old-style scientific photographic glass plates!

I took this, my very first DSO image, with this camera. It's a manually-guided 40 minute exposure on a Kodak 0.800 pan. 'super-speed' (ISO 25, I think!) plate .... which I still have: here's a picture of it. Amazing to think where technology has taken us since then.

Adrian

[smerral]

Here's mine from a just a couple of days back. It's the old favourite, the Orion nebula - but I think trapezium would be a better title as those stars show up very well. The stars look best in the first processing whilst the second is better for nebulosity. Taken with a Skywatcher Mak 127 and a modded spc900nc webcam:

[smerral]

Just one final go at the above:

[rob158]

My first,

Orion nebula,

Edited January 24, 2011 by rob158

[geordieskies]

here's a pic from my first attempt at imaging. It was taken in November 2002 near Allendale in Northumberland. It's a 10second exposure at f2, taken with a Canon Powershot G2 and shows a Leonid meteor, the lower half of Orion and the bright star is Sirius. The pic was cropped and the contrast increased slightly in PS7.

[prbaxter]

Orion Nebula.

This set was my first time out with the camera - no telescope.