Obligatory first DSO...

[speckles]

M42, of course. Second attempt really, the first being a dismal failure using a Canon Ixus 70 hand-held to the eyepiece of my Celestron 130EQ.

This was from 7 subs of 10 seconds each, same kit but now with the aid of a digiscoping adapter. Aligned and stacked in Registax 5.1, tweaked in Photoshop.

[Richard C]

I've been trying to grab this one myself since Christmas as well using very similar equipment.

Presumably this is a crop of a much larger set of images?

[themos]

You could try DeepSkyStacker for r egistering and stacking of deep sky images. Great start! See how far you can push this afocal method...

[speckles]

I've been trying to grab this one myself since Christmas as well using very similar equipment.

Presumably this is a crop of a much larger set of images?

Not really - just selected those where I'd managed to get the motor drive rate about right.

Funnily enough, the next time I tried for some images, the results were nowhere near as 'good' - transparency was not so good, later at night (= lower in the sky) and telescope dewing up fast. Hopefully we'll get some proper weather down here in southern England soon so I can try again!

[Richard C]

Apparently the South is getting some ok weather near the 14th and 15th, so fingers, toes and tripod legs crossed until then.

[MikeWilson]

Apparently the South is getting some ok weather near the 14th and 15th, so fingers, toes and tripod legs crossed until then.

Hi Richard,

Where do you get your forecasts from? All my forecasts say cloud, cloud, cloud and fog

[Richard C]

Hi Richard,

Where do you get your forecasts from? All my forecasts say cloud, cloud, cloud and fog

Normallt metcheck.com then nearer the time double check the cloud radar on sat24.com.

Saying that, the forecast now says it's going to rain... So much for the clear skies.

[Porl]

Great image speckles! Awesome colours!

M42 is one I've been hoping to get a snap of. I dont have the motor version of the 130eq but im hoping i can get the area anyway.

Keep going dude, Im eager to see what other DSO's you get on your 'scope

[Richard C]

I forgot to mention that I read posts and look at images from people with expensive kit all the time and this kind of image makes realise that you can get really surprisingly good results with budget friendly equipment. Good job Speckles

[MikeWilson]

Speckles, that's a really nice first go at M42. Try one sub for 30 seconds and see what comes out.

Normallt metcheck.com then nearer the time double check the cloud radar on sat24.com.

Saying that, the forecast now says it's going to rain... So much for the clear skies.

The Shetland Islands are clear tonight