M45

[abodee2]

This is my first attempt trying to image anything a couple nights ago, i think i struggled to polar align well because the goto didn't catch any objects in the centre of the eye piece so thats maybe why i got some trailing? I could see the pleiades really well with my naked eye which was wonderful so i thought i'd try my hand at imaging since the camera was sitting in the car. Was going to wait a bit and just do observing for a while until i get the hang of everything before trying to image stuff but i couldn't resist trying. 

Would love to hear any feedback, i know its poorly but we've all got to start somewhere i suppose!

[ronin]

Possibly a bit of an odd question: How low were the Pleiades when you took the image ?

[abodee2]

Possibly a bit of an odd question: How low were the Pleiades when you took the image 

Well It was at 1.30am here, put the details in stellarium

Was really high but hopefully this screenshot should answer your question

[ollypenrice]

Start by looking at the colour balance because the entire image, including the background sky, is blue.

Olly

[ronin]

OK, higher then I expected so a strange idea I had is not applicable, they were 30+ degrees above the horizon.

I asked as the previous time I saw them it was about the same time but they were just crawling up over the horizon, and when low (very low) you can get a strange effect coming through.

I suppose the question returns to why the goto did not centre anything.

[abodee2]

OK, higher then I expected so a strange idea I had is not applicable, they were 30+ degrees above the horizon.

I asked as the previous time I saw them it was about the same time but they were just crawling up over the horizon, and when low (very low) you can get a strange effect coming through.

I suppose the question returns to why the goto did not centre anything.

I had a lot of trouble with polar alignment, It was really clear with my own eye but I just couldn't find it easily with the polar scope. I'm guessing that's what's most likely to cause it? What do you think? I'm going to try again tonight if the weather keeps up

Start by looking at the colour balance because the entire image, including the background sky, is blue.

Olly

tinkered with it a bit in GIMP just now 

[Stub Mandrel]

Hope you don't mind, but I had a go at your original. I did this in Corel Paint. What I did was:

1. Copy the whole image and paste it back in as a new object (layer).
2. Set it to 'if darker'
3. Moved it up and to the left slightly until all the stars looked reasonably round.
4. combined the object with background
5. applied a auto-adjust to stretch the histogram for each colour to 0-100% (this restored the colour balance)
6. dropped the gamma to get rid of some streaking of the background
7. dabbed with a dark brush to get rid of some obvious pairs of red dots (you need to use darks to get rid of hot pixels)
8. dropped the saturation by about 50% to make it look more natural

I'm sure more playing could do even better. The first 'trick' is useful for rescuing images where the stars have smeared a bit but loses detail if there are things other than stars in the image. I'm sure more could be done.

The main problem was that in the original image the blue data was massively overwhelming the green and (especially) the red. The blue stars still look blue and have hints of nebulosity around them, but a few red stars have 'appeared' as well.

[steviemac500]

I always find polar aligning easier at dusk as there aren't many others to choose from. Have you got the lat set properly for your location and definitely pointing North? If so, it should be there. Also, make sure your set up in the GOTO is spot on as this will cause problems too.

[abodee2]

Hope you don't mind, but I had a go at your original. I did this in Corel Paint. What I did was:

1. Copy the whole image and paste it back in as a new object (layer).
2. Set it to 'if darker'
3. Moved it up and to the left slightly until all the stars looked reasonably round.
4. combined the object with background
5. applied a auto-adjust to stretch the histogram for each colour to 0-100% (this restored the colour balance)
6. dropped the gamma to get rid of some streaking of the background
7. dabbed with a dark brush to get rid of some obvious pairs of red dots (you need to use darks to get rid of hot pixels)
8. dropped the saturation by about 50% to make it look more natural

I'm sure more playing could do even better. The first 'trick' is useful for rescuing images where the stars have smeared a bit but loses detail if there are things other than stars in the image. I'm sure more could be done.

The main problem was that in the original image the blue data was massively overwhelming the green and (especially) the red. The blue stars still look blue and have hints of nebulosity around them, but a few red stars have 'appeared' as well.

temp.png

No i dont mind at all! that looks a ton better! Thank you for the tips and tricks!! 

[abodee2]

Second attempt the other day, second time I've managed to get my new scope out. PA still could have been better so i was scared to take longer exposure times, although I think i've almost nailed it so next time should hopefully get much better results! 

http://imgur.com/RMv2fgV

[abodee2]

Feel free to play around with the image, the stars are still shaped funny but i think thats because the PA is a bit off so there's still some trailing