First Attempt - M37

[Mered]

This is the first picture taken with my new setup.

It was taken using an EOS350D through a SkyWatcher 80ED DS Pro on an HEQ5 mount, with a x0.85 focal reducer.

I used 8 shots at 4 seconds each at ISO1600. Stacked in DeepSkyStacker.

Next time I will take some darks as well to see how they improve the image. Anything else I should change too (ISO/exposure time)?

Long way to go but quite pleased with the first results

[Thalestris24]

Hi

You really want to do much longer exposures - with a reduced ED80 I reckon you should be able to get maybe 90-120s subs unguided with good PA. Next maybe do some flats - about 30. As you're only doing short exposures, you can probably get away without darks.

ISO is usually best at 400 or 800. The more subs the merrier!

Louise

[jambouk]

Yes, get the polar alignment nice and tight and go for 60 second subs.

James

[Mered]

Thanks for the feedback. My thought was that exposures should have been longer too, so I'm glad I was thinking on the right lines.

I'll hopefully have better results on my next try!

[jambouk]

Do a handset polar alignment routine a few times (after a two star alignment with two stars on the same side of the meridian). You'll get your mel and maz errors down to a few arc minutes.

Then do some test runs to see how long you can go before you get trailing - always check for trailing on a computer and not on the little screen of the camera.

[Astrosurf]

Nice shot! Now to look towards guiding. Your world will literally open up! Um, but so will your pocket . . . um. 

Alexxx

[toilandtrouble123]

Looking good. I'm impressed! Wondering what DSO's I can capture with our set up this summer. Seeing everyone's recent uploads is making me hungry to achieve my own xx

[wxsatuser]

Good first try.

[MattJenko]

Nice effort. I do like a good cluster, and it's great to see then in context against a dark background.

Go for longer individual subs and see how far you can go with your current setup before the star shapes suffer. When you find your happy spot, you will get much brighter stars and then try reducing the ISO level to minimise excessive noise creeping in, which will help enormously in the image processing stages. 800 or 400 will be fine, it depends a bit on your camera. My 450d worked better at ISO 400, but I could get away with 800, but higher resulted in noticeably more noise.

Good start indeed.

[Mered]

Thanks everyone :-)

Clear skies predicted my way tonight, so I shall be out for another go. I did get an autoguider as well, but wanted to get to know the mount and aligning it properly first before getting too far ahead.

I'll work on alignment accuracy for now, due to positioning of trees and house I'm limited on the stars I can select from the handset for alignment (using Capella and Arcturius for now, if I try 3 star then all of the available stars on the handset are behind various objects). However, we just had an offer accepted on a new house with a bigger garden and darker skys, so looking forward to getting moved (part of the reason I liked the house we chose is that it'd be much better for astronomy, don't tell the wife!).

[Astrosurf]

I don't bother with 3 star align. I believe that's to sort out cone error (which I don't understand!). 2 star does fine for me.

Good luck with the house move!