First DSO attempt, M42

[nitram100]

Hi guys,

 

Had my first go at a deep sky object last night, M42.

It was 30 X 20 second subs with 20 darks in sharp cap and stacked in DSS. It was 16 bit RAW file.

I messed about with it in GIMP, first attempt looks a bit too pink but I'll keep practising the levels, stretch etc

Any advice would be great.  Would I benefit from longer exposures?  When I upped the frames to 25-30 seconds, it became too over exposed and the stars became big blobs.

 

Thanks for any advice

[PeterCPC]

Great first attempt!

Some suggestions - you need to get the focus right so I suggest a bahtinov mask. With M42 you need long exposures for most of it but short exposures for the core. You then combine them.

Getting the colour right can be a bit trial and error but you don't say what camera was used. Was it the 183c Pro? Did you use an IR filter?

[nitram100]

5 minutes ago, PeterCPC said:

Great first attempt!

Some suggestions - you need to get the focus right so I suggest a bahtinov mask. With M42 you need long exposures for most of it but short exposures for the core. You then combine them.

Getting the colour right can be a bit trial and error but you don't say what camera was used. Was it the 183c Pro? Did you use an IR filter?

Thanks mate, appreciate it!

I definitely need to work on the focus as I was doing it manually with live view, which can be quite tricky. Bhatinov mask thanks for the advice!

It's the Altair Astro 183c Pro which has a built in UV-IR blocking filter.

Ah that makes sense with regards to the core, because that was the part that was getting too bright and bloated with the 30 sec exposure.

Thanks again, this imaging is definitely addictive!

[PeterCPC]

10 minutes ago, nitram100 said:

Thanks again, this imaging is definitely addictive!

and expensive.

[nitram100]

12 minutes ago, PeterCPC said:

and expensive.

Haha too right