M42 my 1st deep sky image

[steve51450]

this is my 1st real go at deep sky, half the images were taken through a street lamp and i could not get my guiding sorted On top of this the cloud rolled back an forth all night long, so i am really pleased for an unguided 1st image

well anyway here goes, Ive been dreading putting my 1st deep sky post up. You see so many fantastic images on here

(click to enlarge)

350d modded with cls filter at F4.8 80mm scope

steve

[thing]

Looks pretty damn fine to me Steve. You've caught some OGW there too.

[ChrisEdu]

Nice picture.

[Taff]

Hi Steve' Weldone on your first capture.Very nice indeed.Taff

[Psychobilly]

Very nice first DSO Steve .

Wish my first was anywhere near as good as that

Excellent focus and framing A cracker

Billy...

[steppenwolf]

Ive been dreading putting my 1st deep sky post up. You see so many fantastic images on here

Well Steve, your image has just joined the ranks of fantastic images - you should be really pleased with this especially as you were obviously plagued with clouds like me last night! This is a very attractive image.

Edited for amusing typo!!

[MartinB]

In the words of the late great Dan Maskell, "Oh I say!" What a belter of a 1st image.

[brendant]

Beautiful first DSO Steve, lovely smooth image with nice colour and detail, Running Man Nebula is there too .

Brendan

[Doc]

Well if that's your first I would say you have a great future ahead of you.

Looks damn good to me.

[Tim]

Hi Steve, only one thing to say,

FINALLY!!

And its a very nice pic too. It wasnt easy getting anything last night, with that thin fast rolling cloud. In fact, I should ring you to see what my weather will be in 15 mins!

Is that street light near you still painted black?

Tim

[steve51450]

it is still painted black mate and the one 20 yards up the road has a darker almost nebulosity effect to it now also!!

still, i considered a sledge hammer at one point last night as my target was only 12" above the top of it at one stage

[narrowbandpaul]

tres good image

[markcol]

Fantastic first image Steve!

Mark

[Sam]

Superb first image Steve! Well done!

[CELESCOPE]

excellent image mate ,well done , Whos Dan Maskell Martin ??????

[Kaptain Klevtsov]

Thats a cracking start Steve, great image.

There's even more in the data that you can pull out if you follow MartinB's tutorials here http://www.astropixels.co.uk/

Just using levels and curves will enhance it no end, as processing is half the battle with imaging.

Kaptain Klevtsov

[gary1968]

Very nice Steve, a brilliant first DSO, hope mine is as nice when it comes.

Gary

[Starjumper]

Great first image Steve.

John

[Beyond_Vision]

Thats an excellent capture for a first DSO and shows good promise. If you look at the sticky post at the top of the DSO section you will see my paltery first efforts and many more that were not as good as this.

Regards

Kevin

[GordonH]

Hi Steve

Excellent start, far better than my first effort, great focus and tracking looks good, keep it up

Best wishes

Gordon

[MartinB]

excellent image mate ,well done , Whos Dan Maskell Martin ??????

Tennis commentator Rog. He was very economical with his use of words. After a particularly brilliant shot his normal comment was "oh I say".

[RobH]

Lovely image Steve. Nice and smooth, good colour, very well focussed and I like the diffraction spikes on the bright star....finishes it off very well

Cheers

Rob

[barkis]

A Wonderful first attempt Steve. Well, attempt is not the right word, success fits better, and you must be delighted mate.

Good stuff, and I look forward to seeing more of your work.

Ron.

[LostNSpace]

Not a bad image at all Steve, 100 times better than my 1st posted DSO which was incidently M42 as well.

Focussing is spot on too.........You should be very pleased with your 1st DSo image

What were your exposure times and how many subs did you use by the way?

Mark

[steve51450]

hi Mark

thanks for that

it was a last minute thing to be honest so i forgot to balance my set up and that caused me massive problems guiding so i gave up guiding and just did short 30sec subs, 110 of them in total

plastic chicken is going to come over this week and show me how to balance a duo mounting setup in 3d as i have been struggling due to the weight differential on either side

It is a sharp learning curve but i am enjoying myself an awful lot

steve