First Ever Astrophoto

[Swoop1]

Vey nice start Terry. Well done. An enjoyable write up as well.

For polar alignment, I had an EQ3-2 and struggled with the illumination of the reticle of the polar scope. It became quite a bit easier when I got a polar scope illuminator like this- https://www.tringastro.co.uk/sky-watcher-polar-illuminator-for-eq3-2eq5-mounts-7723-p.asp

[TerryJ]

15 hours ago, ollypenrice said:

Lots of things are absolutely right so this is a great start.

The whole point of this game is that it takes a bit of learning. That's why it's worth doing...

Olly

 

Thanks for the kind words. I cant wait to get out again when the weather improves.

 

13 hours ago, Stargazer33 said:

That's a great start Terry! It's much better than my first images and my take on M42 which came later. 

Looks like you have a good signal to noise ratio (snr). Have a look at the YouTube video on applying a false luminance layer. It's shown in Photoshop, but gimp is so similar I'm sure it can be used for that too.

Thanks for the link, will try it out soon.

[TerryJ]

13 hours ago, Swoop1 said:

Vey nice start Terry. Well done. An enjoyable write up as well.

For polar alignment, I had an EQ3-2 and struggled with the illumination of the reticle of the polar scope. It became quite a bit easier when I got a polar scope illuminator like this- https://www.tringastro.co.uk/sky-watcher-polar-illuminator-for-eq3-2eq5-mounts-7723-p.asp

Thanks for this, now ordered.

[Anakin Skywalker]

Awesome start to astro imaging! my first ones were no near as cool as yours. Welcome to the hobby😃

[Xsubmariner]

As others have already stated a great start. The first images are always the best, now the fun starts.  Today we are blessed with a wide range of equipment and software to accommodate most user budgets, coupled with dedication and patience we all possess the opportunity to produce remarkable images from our own back yards.