I think I have it all together...

[Brasspoodle]

This is more as result of finally getting everything working rather than as fully fleshed out images. M42 is comprised of 26x 1 minute exposures at ISO800. M30 is comprised of 4x 2 minute exposures at ISO800 and NGC300 is composed of 10x 2 minute exposures at ISO800. For M42 30x 1 minute Darks and 30x Flats (with Bias frames subtracted) were combined into a Master Dark and Master Flat. For M30 and NGC300 the Master Dark was comprised of only 10x 2 minute Darks and I used the same Master Flat. I processed the image in Nebulosity: subtracted darks and flats, Normalized Intensities, Batch Demosaic+Square RAW color, aligned, combined, Auto Color Balanced, applied some Digital Development, Power stretching and finally some minor colour adjustments (to get the green out of it). It was shot from my backyard 6km from Brisbane central (Australia) and there were quite a few low lying clouds about which really affected both NGC300 and M30.

In terms of the set-up I use Cartes du Ciel, Astrotortilla, PHD2, all connected to the HEQ5 Pro mount in PC-Direct mode (using EQMOD to control it all) and have Backyard EOS controlling a Canon 600D DSLR camera.  This is run from my MacBook Pro using Virtual Box running Windows 10 as a virtual machine. On top of the mount I have an ED80 (with a
.8x focal reducer) and a finderguider with a ToupTek mono guide camera. 

After some teething and a need to check COM port assignments for the Serial cable everything runs very smoothly. As I can't see the South Pole from where I am I need to drift align but only in azimuth (I take time to level the mount so the altitude stays fixed from previous sessions). I capture sync points as I go in Cartes du Ciel, plate solving in Astrotortilla, and  then finishing by centering stars using the focus mode in Backyard EOS. I use a Bahtinov mask to adjust focus. I capture my Light frames first, then Darks, then Flats using a light box.

I hope this process seems about right? Basically it's derived from from the sources found here and elsewhere. I'd welcome any advice based on the images and what I've got set up. I don't have plans to spend hours processing but am looking to have a reasonably quick method I can use to capture whatever happens to be up on an evening with, hopefully, reasonable results. While I'm sure dark skies will solve a great deal in regards to noise I'm curious if there is something I can do to get more out of the Galaxy and globular images? I'm not using a CLS filter. Would that help? I'm confident with tracking so figure I could expose longer if using a filter. 

Orion M42.tif

M30.tif

NGC300.tif

[Ouroboros]

It's a good feeling when it all comes together.  I like the M42 image. It has a soft look which I like. Looks like you're doing the right things. It goes without saying that you need more data. Your exposures seem quite short to me. I tend to go for 5 minute subs at 400iso on my canon 450D. 

Are you having to set up from scratch each time? I know from experience that's  quite a feat to get all that technology working well. I don't have an observatory so have looked at ways to facilitate the set up as efficiently as I can. 

[Brasspoodle]

Yep. I set up from scratch each time. The longer exposures I've taken seem to be dominated by light pollution. Maybe dropping down the ISO to 400 will help? I was thinking lots of shorter exposures would be better than a few long ones?

[Ouroboros]

My light pollution in Cornwall is not too bad as long as there is little sea mist. ISO is really a compromise between noise and gain. I settled on 400iso after reading around a bit on the noise characteristics of the 450D. I have also built up a reasonably adequate darks library at 400iso at various temperatures so I can concentrate on gathering lights and make best use of my limited imaging time.  But I also use 800iso on occasion for fainter objects. 

[Brasspoodle]

Curious about what I assume is tilt in the m42 picture (NGC300 was almost at Zenith so makes sense there would be no tilt here) and the way stars are a bit hollow and have a kind of halo that points centrally at the edge of the field. I'm thinking a field flattener screwed into the drawtube might eliminate these issue or at least minimize them?

[Brasspoodle]

Here are the star faults near the edge? Field curvature?