Omega Centauri with new mount

[Tony Leece]

Well it cleared a week after i bought the mount and i finally got to try polar alignment for the very first time.
I still only have my 17 year old canon 300d, so i stuck it on my SW.80ED and shot a dozen 2 minute subs at iso 800
Stacked them in DSS and tweeked the result a bit.
The 300d is a nightmare to focus as it only has the small, dim viewfinder.
But i was fairly happy just to get anything.
I am a little hesitant to post as, even though this is the beginner section, all the images here are stunning.
Any critique, tips or the like are very much appreciated ( i know a new camera would vastly help )
Cheers
Tony

[Anth10 (Anthony M)]

Tony,
Polar alignment was successful which is good, I guess there is a little drift with the outer edges showing star elongation but hey this is something most of us are troubled with. The glob itself is good and you achieved what you setout to do. If your camera can be hooked up to a screen there are programs like sharpcap where you can see a live view instead of using the viewfinder. You could then get a hold of a batinov mask and use it to fine tune your focusing.

I’m not sure about the 300 but the shopping list is always a mile long in this game. Maximise what you have and keep having fun.
Well done.

Anth

[Tony Leece]

Thanks for that Anthony, I'm not sure if the 300 can be hooked up to a computer for this, I have done a bit of a google search to see if it is compatible with no luck so far. It would be excellent if I could focus like that it would save my old bones rolling around on concrete.
Thanks again mate

[LostInSp_ce]

Looks good to me Tony. My only critque and it's only a personal preference, but I think globs look best centered when they're the only target in frame. Other than that well done.

[PKay (Peter)]

Hi Tony

Love to have a look but the link to your image is broke :-(

And this forum is for successes and failures.

We are all learning here!

[Tony Leece]

Re ran the images through DSS and used darks and bias frames. Tweaked the white balance and centred the image (although I didn't reduce the brightness of some of the text.
I think there are a few more stars.
Next time the weather behaves I will have another go with much more subs+flats
Thanks guys for your encouragement

[LostInSp_ce]

A few more stars and better colour overall I think. However, it still might need a couple nudges to the left and up but I'm just nit picking.
Well done again!

[Tony Leece]

Originally Posted by LostInSp_ce

A few more stars and better colour overall I think. However, it still might need a couple nudges to the left and up but I'm just nit picking.
Well done again!

Cheers mate