The Bazillionth M42

[AstroJunk]

But why not!

Unusual for me to be in this section, but I finally succumbed to a DSLR (Canon 650) for Xmas and on the only clearish night stuck it on the front of my 14" Meade which is running Hyperstar at f2.0

Not really knowing what I was doing (but I have been listening to you all), I took nine frames from 1 sec through to 60 seconds and ran them through registax. The final image got a little tweaking on photoshop. I really need to take some flats one day and re-process (BTW, I kept the background dark to hide the evil gradient), but I had fun doing it and might even take it more seriously next time!!!

Aperture rulez...

[LAW]

That's lovely for the amount of data you had. 14" f/2 *swoon*

[Larryp]

Ditto!

[Shark Bait]

That is a nice shot. I like the dark background and the contrast that goes with it.

[jsmoraes]

It looks well to DSLR. I never used Registax to DSO, but I already saw people working with. I realized a little of not alignment, not due to 1 minute exposition. Am I right? What ISO you used?

[allan gould]

Welcome to the dark side, Jonathan. Before long you might come into the fold and experience the joys of CCD.
Allan

[AstroJunk]

All that aperture would be dangerous in the right hands! The field seems pretty sharp to the edges. I usually use it for Asteroidal Occultation work and tracking NEOs with a 1/3rd inch chip, so even the APS-C seems enormous...

[AstroJunk]

Thanks Stu - I like my blacks black :)



I had some issues of movement due to me making all manual exposures from the front of the scope - not very sophisticated, I probably shook the tube! All images were at ISO 1600



I'm not sure if I have what it takes Allan, still more of the instant gratification type...

[Ross G]

Great shot Jonathan.

I think you're hooked!


Ross.

[LewisM]

Nice one.

Amazing how many permutations of field rotation we get on M42. Some (most) seem to display it facing right, some left, some even upside down and flipped.... :) It's space, it doesn't matter ;)

[AstroJunk]

Thanks chaps,

To save another thread, here's a badly processed set of images I took earlier. 12 each of 60, 30, 15, 5, 2.5 and 1 second at iso 800.

Thankfully the reduction is size lessens the effects of the lack of focus, the poor stacking and a multitude of other defects!

Still no flats, darks and processed as jpgs.

I had fun anyway :rofl: