First tentative steps...

[SkyExplorer]

Hi,

I'm just starting down the slipper slope of imaging and last night was the first time I managed to get everything working properly, the mount was aligned nicely, and I had my SW 80ED and Canon 450d all ready to go.

To start with I took 8x30sec subs of M52, M39 and M13 (I know I need far more than this but I thought I'd take a few to start with to see if I had the focus right and that the mount tracked okay). I took some images with ISO800 and some with ISO1600 to see the difference.

I've downloaded DSS, but I'm not entirely sure what to do next, do I need to do Darks and flats ??

Also the individual images look quite orange (I guess because of light pollution) so I guess I'll need to go some processing on them at some point.

Any help must welcomed

[SkyExplorer]

ah, just found the DSS help regarding darks, lights and bias frames.

Does anyone use Gimp to process their images? How do I reduce the orange glow ?

Thanks

[SkyExplorer]

Just wondering if there are any "beginning imaging" tutorials that someone can point me to as I can't seem to find any.

I'd like some tips on how to reduce light pollution from the image, is it best to use a filter or do this in processing? What are the best settings for DSS? Do I need any other software? Should I be taking the images using RAW? etc, etc?

I found a thread where 1/4000s was recommended for taking bias frames so slowly getting the information I need.

Cheers