Orion Nebula - learning from my mistakes

[idigitize]

Thanks to the clouds - and my naivety, I thought I'd take my dark frames first.

I managed to get polar aligned which I still struggle with when you have to wait for a gap in the clouds.

I took dark frames, about 10, at 800iso, 360 seconds.

The clouds finally cleared, it was getting on,about 1am. And took ft first sub of orion.

As is popped up on the screen, a white orange colour with the core completely blown.

I knew I need shorter exposures and my darks would be wasted.

So I changed to iso400 and 150 secs.

It soon became 4am and being a school night my patience for taking more darks was non existent, I got 4, and called it s night.

This is also 4am editing to prove to the other half it was worth staying up for.

Excuse the noise, I'm sure if I edit the darks and the 1 light I have at longer exposure, I could combine it all, but maybe better to start again. I still think it's pretty if I don't look at the noise too much

Lesson learned, Know you max sub length prior to shooting darks.!

[carastro]

I think the biggest mistake here is how you have processed the image.  You have clipped the black point, i.e. moved the slider too far to make the sky background dark.  Never move it right up to or beyond the histogram peak or you will lose data.  The rear end of the nebula has disappeared.

It might also benefit from colour balancing.

I think you'll be pleasantly surprised at what you've actually captured once you have corrected those two things.

HTH

Carole 

[idigitize]

Thanks Carole, I will start the editing from scratch again and see what I actually have.

[glowingturnip]

you don't need to do your darks at the same time as your lights - do them another night when it's about the same temperature and use same ISO and duration, and just leave the camera somewhere dark to work through them all.  Bias frames you can also do at any time, it's only flats that should be done at the same time as your lights (just after, before you move anything)

[simmo39]

Thats Brill