First DSLR picture

[Glider]

My first ever with my new Canon 1000d, a single 180s exposure(the best, believe me I took a 100) of M81/82, ISO 800, on my ST80, unguided, no LP filter. Cropped out all of the vignetting and played with curves and levels in CS3.

Obviously lots of scope(!) for improvement but hours of endless fun playing with the new toy.

[steppenwolf]

That is a very creditable start - you'll be hooked in no time!

[tooth_dr]

Fantastic, M82 is really detailed

[Deneb]

For an unguided shot, it's very good ..

Nadeem.

[philj]

Well done Noel, easy innit:D

Like the M82 especially plenty of detail for a short sub.

Was it unguided?

If doing unguided drop the exposure time and do say 10 to 20 of 50 to 60 second subs then stack these in DSS you will pull in tons of detail then and reduce the trailing

If giuding the limiting factor for exposure is your sky quality.

Now the big question is do you prefer DSLR imaging to the DSI?

Phil

[russ]

I wish my first DSLR shot looked like that, i would have been well chuffed. Excellent work!

[jgs001]

Very nicely done, that's an excellent result for a single sub.

[Glider]

Hi PhilJ, it was exactly as you told me when I came round on Monday.

At 4 minutes the subs just looked orange with sky glow, even gived M82 was pretty much straight up.

The aperture did give severe vignetting so I'm looking at the 2" options and a filter, in reality I'll be using the 200P and not the ST80.

I did do a lot more of 60s subs with less glow and less trailing that I'm still playing with in DSS, etc to learn the ropes on using the Canon RAW file format.

Yes, these really were unguided, just mount tracking.

Plus, the focus and image cature was all possible without a PC!!

[philj]

Yep live view is the best thing since sliced bread for getting decent focus, used with a bhatinov mask its really quick and easy.

As for doing without a pc, I was at one time thinking of the stand alaone guider, that together with a timer release for the 1000d would get rid of teh pc in the field completely

Phil

[Merlin66]

Yeah..

That's where the trusty ol' ST-4 comes into it's own.

Ken