What can you do with this?

[blinky]

Finally managed to get a shot of M42 tonight. I am very happy that I can actually see the nebula etc as it is my first attempt at a DSO object. Anyway not quite sure how to progress with it. It was taken in RAW but I did not take any dark/light frames as I dont know what they are (its the subject of another of my posts!). Anyway see what you folks can do and as always let me know what apps and tools were used.

Here we go!!

[blinky]

Here is my first effort. Just played about a bit in Photoshop.

[blinky]

How good is NeatImage :)

[FLO]

If you can nail down the focus and tracking, you'd have a winner

[geppetto]

Hey Blinky

That's a good first DSO.

I've got lots of similar images of M42 from three years back

when I first started.

All you need to do now is practice on the settings for focus etc

and you will do fine.

I remember how exciting it was (still is) to get some colour from a nebula 8)

[blinky]

I had thought that the focus was actually ok? I focussed on the moon then moved to Orion. I think that the tracking is not too bad, it was however quite windy and I think this is the cause. I am not sure what to do with regards to focussing as I use the camera zoomed in to an eyepiece and its very hard to even see a star on the screen never mind focus on it!!

Anyway I am just hapy to actually have something and it proves that the camera is suitable for astro work. BTW I assume that having a 'proper' DSLR would be more suitable since the lens can be removed but I am not sure of the advantages of this over what I am doing. I think I can buy this camera from the person who loaned me it for about 100quid but I am not sure whether to nag the missus to let me get a DSLR when I get my annual bonus in March!

[AndyM]

.... not sure whether to nag the missus to let me get a DSLR when I get my annual bonus in March!

Go on, blinky - do it! You know you want to.

Seriously, I bought a Canon 350d about a month ago and its a great camera although the weather hasn't let me do much astro stuff with it yet I got one from Amazon with the kit lens for £399 but checking just now the price has gone up to £429.

Andy.

[blinky]

I am just wondering what extra (astro wise) I would get from a real DSLR as opposed to the Coolpix DSLR that I have, as afr as I can see the only thing is the ability to remove the lens but what does this mean to the quality/ease of astro pics?

[AndyM]

Quality-wise I can't say yet but it is very easy to just click a camera body onto the focusser - less trouble than trying to align a camera lens to an eyepiece IMHO.

[FLO]

There are a number of reasons why a DSLR will outperform a digicam but chief is the fact that a DSLR has a much larger imaging chip with larger pixels - which results in a wider FOV and greater sensitivity.