My first deep space attempts

[bigal1]

Hi all well after weeks of waiting for a clear night i finally got 1 , with no guiding i thought m42 would be a good place to start so my 1000d was attached to my c80ed wich is on a cg4 and off i went . With this being my first deep space attempt i thought keeping the number of subs down would be the way to go until i figure it out as i didnt want to waste a lot of time/subs if i was doing something wrong . The first pic is m42 / Orion taken with 20 lights at 800iso 30 seconds exposure and 10 darks , the second is M31 / Andromeda taken at the same settings as the first although due to my batteries running low on my mount the quality is not as good . Both pics were processed with photoshop but only using what i know for the moment ( which is not that much ) so any tips or advice would be most welcome , on my next outing i'll try the same 2 targets again only this time will go for a lot more subs and have fresh batteries lol .

Regards Alan

[Demonperformer]

Excellent results for your first attempt.

[Neilius]

Fantastic first effort, Alan!

[msinclairinork]

Hi Alan,

Nicley done for your first DSO's!!! That will be you hooked now!

Hope you dont mind I had a quick and dirty go processing these a bit more.

Couldn't get much more out of M31, probably just my lack of processing skills.

But there was a bit more to be had with M42, and again probably alot more. I am still very new to this myself.

I am sure others will have a go too, and exceed the little i have managed.

Let me know what you think

Michael

[ollypenrice]

Very good start indeed. Your plan for more exosure is the right one. Are you guided?

It looks as if you might benefit from a field flattener for the ED80, I think. In the corners the stars are a little elongated but they look better in the middle.

Lovely colour in M42.

Olly

[brantuk]

That's great for your frst DSO shots Alan - and I'm impressed with Michaels reprocessing, specially with M31 - wish I could do that lol.

I noted Olly's comment about "elongation" and I can see what he means about that, particularly on the RHS of M31. But it's not so evident on the LHS and I was curious if anyone can explain that.

Is this something to do with the tracking? Or does the RHS elongation suggest some unevenness in the optics or the figuring?

(or perhaps it's just there and I can't see it lol)

[bigal1]

Thanks for the comments , i think the mount running low on power caused the starts on the m31 shot to elongate more than they did on m42 but i do need a field flattener . Thanks michael for the reprocess just shows how much detail is really there just itching to get back out now and try again with more subs

Regards Alan