My 1st Capture of M42

[Uplooker]

Taken on 27th Nov

RAW Lights 14x60sec & 20x90sec. Darks 14x90secs ISO400

Equipment: SW 150P Newt on EQ6, Canon 450D

Stacked in DSS. No post processing done. Tried in CS5 but failed miserably. Just cannot improve things. Still have .TIFF if someone fancies a go or better still tell me what I need to do to improve it.

Anyway thanks for looking.

[johnh]

Looks like you need longer subs although 60-90secs should be fine but longer subs will get you the fainter nebulosity. A coma corrector will remove star distortion in the corners but you really need to learn stretching and curves to get the full range of shades to show. A good effort as you seem to have the data but mastering CS5 is essential and you will be amazed what detail you can pull out of this result so keep going.

John.

[BlueAstra]

Excellent attempt. I had a look at your image, and I hope you don't mind, I put it into PS for a tweak. I removed the gradient with 'gradient exterminator' and tweaked the levels and curves as described in the imaging primers. I saw some circular artefacts on the image which I think come from DSS - try some different settings to see what they do. Also read up on levels and curve adjustment and you will be able to get much more from your images.

[Uplooker]

Thanks guys. BlueAstra, you have managed to pull out more detail. I will keep trying.

JohnH - yes there is visible vignetting, I have not taken any flats, that is yet another aspect of astroimaging I need to grasp.

Thanks again, Ian