M42. My first ever LRGB

[Hawklord]

Hooray, my first LRGB!

Taken last night with my Meade 80mm. Really struggled with aligning and stacking. Using PS Elements, but have just bought Noels Actions which seems to help.

3x6mins for each LRGB (72mins total)

L filter is a 2" skywatcher LPR (the sky generally orange where I am)Baader RGBs

Camera Sbig ST8300M

Focus not fab, no flats (I cannot get the hang of them), but plenty of darks. Still got a bit of a gradient too!

Looks like a need a better flattener as the Skywatcher just does cut it on the basis of this image. Any suggestions or advice?

Cheers

[Hawklord]

Looking at Coolhandjo's splendid effort from January (http://stargazerslounge.com/imaging-deep-sky/94865-m42-orion-nebula-lrgb.html), I think my subs are too long?? Since it 's now cloudy I'll make some stock darks!