First DSO attempts, NGC457 and M81/82

[gman]

Hi all,

After having my clock drives turn up earlier in the week, I had my first chance to try imaging some DSOs.

First up is NGC457, the owl cluster, which is one of my favorite clusters to look at. I took 5 15 second lights @ISO800 and 5 30s ones also at ISO 800. I also took 10 darks (5 15s, 5 30s). All in all I was pretty pleased with the result. Stacked with DSS and processed with PixInsight LE. I'm pretty pleased with the end result.

Target no.2 was M81 and M82. These are the first galaxies that I've seen through a telescope so I though that they should be one of my first deep sky imaging targets as well. 10 lights of 90s each @ ISO800 + 5 darks. Processed with DSS and PixInsight.

I fairly happy with the result, although its a shame that M81's spirals are so faint. I would have liked to take longer subs but the two minute ones I attempted were obviously trailing. I'll have to learn to drift align.

Equipment used WO ZS70 on a skywatcher EQ3-2 mount. The camera is an unmodified EOS350. I used a Bahtinov mask from Stay Focussed for focusing.

The bug has definitely bitten.

Gareth

[MartinB]

Crikey Gareth, they are superb first DSOs. The arms of M81 are showing nicely. Round stars and well focused. Looking forward to your second and thrid lights now!

[Beyond_Vision]

Great first images Gareth keep them coming

Regards

Kevin

[Dangerous-Dave]

That's pretty good, keep up the good work.

[gary1968]

Very nice, NGC457 is one of my fav. objects and you have captured it well.

Thanks for sharing.

Gary