M45 - making progress with processing

[Sparrow]

With a total lack of clear skies for over a week now I keep returning to the data I captured two weeks ago and bit by bit seem to be getting more out of it (in no small part thanks to the primers and tutorials on this forum).

This was from 3 images of ISO 800, 10 minutes, and two at ISO800 of 15 minutes with the Canon EOS1000D through the 8" Newt.

The big break through seems to have been finally managing to take some decent flats which have helped to remove most of the vignetting (I'd previously tried the method on this forum using Pixinsight - it worked but seemed to lose a lot of the data in to the bargain).

If only I could get some more data - when will the clouds go away!!!!

[Deneb]

great image, was this guided or unguided ?

[Psychobilly]

Thats coming along very nicely...

Whilst DBE or GradientExterminator can do a very good job theres no real substitute for using "real" flats in the stacking process...

Saying that I still use GradientExterminator to "tidy up" when needed

Just had a quick play with your posted jpeg...

[Sparrow]

Thanks for the comments - yes Deneb it was guided - my first ever night of guiding - I really thought I spend most of the time messing with the guiding but it all seemed to fall in to place quite well so I did manage to get an hour on M45 and an hour on M33 - haven't had another go at processing M33 yet - that's for later today.

Hopefully with a few more hours data on each subject I should be able to get further improvements.

[Taff]

Thats a nice picture of M45 with the neb on show.Mark

[johnh]

Great first time guiding, I wished mine were as good. John.

[rich_t]

That's really nice, lots of good wispy stuff:) Well done with your first guided image.

Rich.

[Sparrow]

Thanks everyone - can't wait to add more data to it. Also, need to save for an MPCC - daren't spend another penny now for quite a while - the boss would go mad

[saturn5]

Great shot,some lovely nebulos,,err wispy bits.

[Sparrow]

I just love the techinical terms we all use on here - "wispy bits", "fuzzy blobs" etc - makes the whole thing understandable to the likes of me