Better than the last time M42

[valleyman]

M42 last night 24/3

200pds with Canon 1000d unmodded

4x 180sec ISO 800

stacked with PS9.

[RogerTheDodger]

Nice image Pat.

[MikeWilson]

M42 last night 24/3

200pds with Canon 1000d unmodded

4x 180sec ISO 800

stacked with PS9.

A good start, and in fact there's more data there than you may think - it just needs to be pulled out.

Did you take any calibration frames? (Darks, bias, flats?). Those are almost as important as the light frames and with them you can reduce the noise (darks and bias) and vignetting and dust/optical aberrations (with flats).

Clear skies,

Mike

[valleyman]

I did remove the dust, but have not worked out how to use darks with PS. Tried to stack with DSS but could not get it to find stars to align. I have a dark and will try again later. thanks fr the comments

[MikeWilson]

Hi Pat,

You want to aim for about 10-20 darks and the same number of flats and bias images. Bias is easy to take, you could do it now in less than a minute. Flats are that much harder as you have to take them at the time while the camera is still attached to the telescope. Darks can be done later, but need to be at the same conditions as the lights (i.e. same temperature and duration).

Hope this helps,

Mike

[Vega]

Great start Pat

Matt