M45

[saturn5]

After weeks of cloudy skies i actually managed to get the megrez 72mm out.Had a bit of trouble getting used to my new side by side set up so spent most of the night faffing about with it.

Once everything was sort of to my liking i took the easy option and went for a nice big bright target to start with which was all i got because the good old clouds rolled in again.Makes you want to give up.cant improve your technique when you cant get the skies to do it.This will be my second winter with a dslr and i've managed about a dozen images in all that time,second clear night without a full moon since August.pathetic really.

3x 10 mins MANUALLY!!!!guided

canon 450 d

megrez 72mm

heq5

[661-pete]

Very good result, for the conditions! You've got a fair bit of the nebulosity coming out there. What ISO were you shooting at? 10 minutes seems like pretty long subs for this target, one has to admire your patience at manual guiding!

I find that the blue is a bit dominant here, perhaps it could be reduced a bit. Also where do your spikes come from? Sorry about this couple of niggles, hope they're seen as constructive.

[saturn5]

The spikes are a mystery to me.Hopefully someone can shed some light on that one(no pun intenetd)focus issue perhaps?I had planned to take a shed load of shorter subs around 2-3 mins but the clouds rolled in

Sitting listening to shine on you crazy diamonds by Pink Floyd makes manual guiding extremely relaxing.

Was using an Astronomica LP clip filter which does tend to give things a blue tinge especially when shooting lowish over a fairly light polluted part of the town.