First ever DSO

[DougM43]

Well after reading just about every post and looking at all the fantastic deep sky images posted, on the forum I decided to take the plunge and collect up some of the equipment needed based on the recommendations I'd read about here, at least within a reasonable budget, I'd already had a dry run in the living room to make sure I had a reasonable idea of how to set up in the dark, so last Thursday was my first night of firsts,

First time polar aligning, which was way more stressful, and painful on the neck than I expected, 

First time using a dslr camera, and backyard eos, which I think without BYE I wouldn't have stood a chance, although I do need a longer usb cable. And ultimately my first try at a DSO. My intention was to try fir M57 as its one of my favourite targets but it wasn't due up until much later so I aimed the scope at M42, another one of my favourite ones which was dipping into the haze of light pollution I can see from my garden, I went for a 12 second capture in the hope I could see something to frame but in fumbling in the dark I accidentally did 121 seconds. I did think I'd made a mistake so sat there waiting for it to finish expecting to see a very washed out orange image with nothing to show of the nebula. When the image popped up on the laptop screen I was completely blown away,, I even said out loud to myself "NO WAY" so here it is,, my first deep sky Astro image, I had a little go at processing using gimp (another first) and probably overdone it but hey ho I'm hooked. 

Comments most welcome, thanks Doug.

 

 

 

[Stargazer33]

Ah! Serendipity is a wonderful thing Doug. That is very nice, and for your first DSO too! I would knock the magenta back a tad, but apart from that, it's a shot to be very proud of. Well done.

Needless to say you are at the top of a very slippery slope my friend!

[wxsatuser]

Well done on your first one.

[wimvb]

Very nice, well done. Just play around with the colour balance to get a more neutral background. Or better yet, in GIMP, create a new layer with the same colour as the background of this image. You can use the eyedropper tool for this. Then subtract that layer from this (choose difference in merge method in the layer panel).

 

Welcome to the dark side ...

[Starwiz]

Nice one Doug!

I'm looking forward to moving over to the darkside myself and have just purchased the NEQ6 mount, which Mrs Starwiz won't let me use until my birthday in a couple of weeks time 

John

[Dave In Vermont]

Very nicely done! Looks like you've found a niche in the world of A-P.

Have fun,

Dave

[DougM43]

Thanks for the comments guys,, there's so much to learn,, I've spent most of the evening watching how on you tube videos, I need to keep reminding myself that the journey is as much fun as the destination. 

 

 

 

 

[PeterCPC]

Well done and welcome to the dark side.

Peter

[ollypenrice]

That first image coming in is a wonderful moment, as you describe. It's addictive, for sure!

On colour balance, I'd start by aligning the top left hand side of the histogram peak in each channel. Do this by moving the black point slider to the right for channels whose histo peak is too far to the right.

Olly

[Marky1973]

Great start!

 

And, don't worry, Polar Alignment gets easier (and less painful) after each go!

[Herzy]

Very nice!  My first DSO astroimage was FAR worse then yours lol. Keep at it!

As for processing you should key out the background blue color and lower the magenta color a lot.

[belfieldi]

Doug,

That's a great first image, far better than mine.

Looking at your image, it looks like you managed to get both PA and focusing pretty close to spot on, which is an achievement in it's self and both get easier with practice.

The one downside is that now you have successfully connected a camera to your scope and taken an image, the urge to upgrade to ever more expensive gear will become evermore irresistible!!!

Clear skies

Ian

[DougM43]

Thanks for all the comments and help folks, i have had a play around with it and i think despite my lack of processing knowlage it's a little better so thanks again all for the help. i have used gimp as its free but i've seen paintshop pro mentioned a lot,, is this the better software for astro processing?

i think my next step is to try and get my head around stacking. When my camera has finished taking a set of images im left with JPEG files and cr2 files, my computer cant open the cr2 files but it seems DSS loads them, am i right in thinking the cr2 files are pure raw images and these are the ones to use? 

Thanks, Doug.

 

[belfieldi]

Hi Doug,

Yes the CR2 files are Canon RAW files and these are the ones to use for processing. I think if you download and install the Canon utilities, you should then be able to open and view the CR2 files. I can view them in windows 10 and have installed the canon utilities.

Ian

[Astrosurf]

Your 'NO WAY' comment made me smile. I had exactly the same reaction to my first, the Ring Nebula. Plus jumping around like a smashed Jack rabbit!

Great first shot!

Alexxx

[Herzy]

Haha mine was "Oh... My... God...". It wasn't even that good of an image and I head a pretty intense reaction.