First ever DSO - M45

[LunarLight]

Hey guys

I know this is not the best of images, but its my first attempt and im actually quite proud of it I just bought a motor drive for my mount after many frustratingly poor nights trying to take photos. This was the first attempt using a motor. It really does help to have one!!

its a stack of 9 images of about 20 seconds each at ISO 400. I also added darks. These were taken during a gap in the clouds the other day so the polar alignment was not great and very rushed.

this is the DSS original stack:

and this is my first attempt at processing the image:

Any tips or advice you guys can give would be appreciated.

Thanks

Mark

[steppenwolf]

Well, Mark, 'the boy done well'! This is a good start - you now need to ramp up the exposure lengths. Try 30 -45 seconds for your next try and take a good few more subframes to stack in DSS.

I notice that the stars on the right hand side especially in the lower half of the image are a little bloated - check that you camera is fastened tightly and flat onto the focus tube.

This is a promising start though, keep going!

[gary1968]

Very nice mate, deffo some colour coming into the 7 sisters in the 'processed' version. Keep up the good work.

Gary

[LukeSkywatcher]

I'd say pull back a bit on the magnification so the stars appear more as a group. That is just my preference though.

[LunarLight]

Thanks for the reply

steppenwolf: cheers :-) I just spotted a gap in the clouds and went out, I tried longer exposures but it appears my polar alignment was off again! meaning that of the 15 subs I captured before the clouds reappeared only 5 are ok to use which sucks.

thanks for the advice on the camera, I wondered why the stars were like that. :-)

gary1968: thanks I will keep trying

LukeSkywatcher: as far as im aware im not using any magnification, its the camera attached straight to the telescope, no barlows or lenses or anything. Is there a way to reduce the magnification

[Catanonia]

NIce start dude...

Forget magnification at the moment as this is down to the focal length of your scope, which unless you change your scope or add barlows to increase it (and increase your exposure time squared to get same light) there is nothing you can do about it other than spending money on reducers.

Great start, fight the clouds, get polar alignment sorted and take loads more.

Use DSS and have fun.

Congrats, I remember my 1st DSO, a cluster if i remember back in May and I was chuffed too.

[LukeSkywatcher]

Sorry Lunarlight. My bad. I didnt pick up on the fact you are using the camera directly attached to the scope.

[jgs001]

Very well done... that's a great start. As has been said get a load more subs... see how long you can get each sub too.

[LunarLight]

Catanonia - hey thanks :-) I will ignore the magnification for the minute, I don't think there is much point anyway I think my scope has a good enough focal length especially for M45

next time I go out im gonna spend a long time polar aligning, even if I only get one image out of it atleast I will get better at doing it I think

LukeSkywatcher - hey no problem man :-) advice is appreciated anyway

jgs001 - yep as soon as I get a proper clear night I will get as many as I can...dam clouds lol!

[MartinB]

A fine start Mark. You are on your way!

[Beyond_Vision]

Lets hope you have caught the imaging bug too

As the others have said try for longer exposures and more of them and you will be well on your way

Regards

Kevin

[adamsp123]

Very nice start, now the bug bites! More and longer subs and you will really see the difference.