First ever astro shot M42

[jason32]

hi guys,

Sky was partly clear tonight so I took my 130pds out and took a few shots, this one is a 4 shot stack 30 secs ISO 1600, nothing fancy but a good experience in learning how the mount Goto system works and stuff. Took me 2 hrs to get it polar aligned lol.

[JR1987]

Looks good to me! 

Dont worry, your polar alignment time will shorten super quickly once youve done it a good few times! 

Use the levels adjustment tool in PS to balance your histogram to remove the purple hue and that will help

balance the real colours out that youve captured

[jason32]

Thanks yes I did some quick PS levels adjustment and it made a huge difference, looks like I captured a lot more detail in RAW files than what I thought I had, so have to process again.

[brantuk]

Excellent first shot - way better than my feeble first attempts. Well done

[jason32]

Excellent first shot - way better than my feeble first attempts. Well done

Thanks, once I get to know the mount and stuff then I'll go to a dark sky place near my house and hopefully will get better results

[laudropb]

Very good first attempt.

[wigggyy]

Nice image thanks for posting

[Starlight 1]

Don't get sucked into the M42 trap by going somewhere dark and taking longer subs will blow the core , So take some 5 and 10s at the same time to put over the top by layer to hold the core down.

Well done!!!!!!

[jason32]

Don't get sucked into the M42 trap by going somewhere dark and taking longer subs will blow the core , So take some 5 and 10s at the same time to put over the top by layer to hold the core down.

Well done!!!!!!

Yes I got some of those too but didnt use them for this image but now you've given me an idea I'll use that

[JohnSadlerAstro]

Hi,

Great image!!! What sort of camera did you use?

John

[scotttumsh]

That is a great first shot! well done.

[xtreemchaos]

great shot mate,you have caught some nice detail.well done. thanks for sharing, charl.

[jason32]

Thanks everyone