M42 - Orion Nebula. First non planet photo

[TRX]

unguided 7x 15sec frames iso800 Canon6D +MPCC, 10" f4 reflector on AZ-EQ6 mount. Stacked in Nebulosity and finished in Lightroom.

Given that the subs were only test shots early in the night i am happy at my first nebula image!

I had setup the scope early evening to get some shots of M42 high in the sky and hoping to get my first ever look at Jupiter at around 4am as it rose. Unfortunately clouds rolled in while i was in bed.

This image was 7 tracking/focus test shots of Orion at ~930 when it was only a few degrees above the horizon and barely visible to the naked eye through the light pollution of Perth to the east.

This was also the first time i had tried to properly polar align the scope, and managed anything longer than 2 seconds before trails started.

Because these were test shots i never took any dark frames, and i need to sort out some bad vignetting. A bit noisy as it was only a few frames that probably not long enough exposure.

any tips for next time apart from;

-no clouds
-longer exposure (i need better alignment for this, stars are just starting to smudge@15 sec)
-how long an exposure is practical before you need a guide scope?
-dark & bias frames
-more subs?

its all a fun learning process :)

But as a first try on a nebula - I'm pretty happy as I've only managed to image Saturn before this via video and registax.

[Visionary]

Seriously, I am the least qualified to proffer advice.... I like it ..... and I reckon you onto something

[raymo]

Hi Martin, good first effort. The noise can be reduced greatly when not using darks if
you enable high ISO noise reduction, and long exposure noise reduction,, when the camera will automatically take a dark after each exposure.
With your scope at prime focus, and with very good polar alignment, you can get a high
percentage of acceptable subs at 60 secs, and lower percentages as you reach out to
around 90 secs. You will get occassional acceptable subs out to 120 secs, or even a little
longer.
raymo

[dimithri86]

Hi Martin,

It looks good. You've made a much better photo than my first attempt with a similar grade setup.

[Somnium]

great first shot of Orion. apart from the things you have already mentioned, maybe try dithering, it is quite good at removing some of the artefacts of DSLR imaging, especially when you are autoguiding.

[doppler]

This seems to be a problem with full frame sensor DSLR's . Possible solutions are use a 2" nose piece on your T adapter, get a larger secondary mirror or find a cheap crop sensor camera ie 1100D or later models are great (live view and higher iso).
Rick

[jenchris]

There's also a lot more info in your pic that you can squeeze out if you stretch the tif file. Stretching the jpg is not pretty ;)

[willik]

IF you need some help in Astro imaging I live south of Perth I will be going out to take the horse head nebular in a couple of weeks the helix I took is on this site.You can email me if your interested.I will be out with another fellow Astro imager.email martinwilliams1953@yahoo.com.au

[Cimitar]

Gotta love an F/4 telescope! Wow, only 15sec exposures and it's already picking up details in the Running Man. That's a great first shot, well done! :thumbsup:

PS. To remove your gradient, you can try applying an artificial flat. Here's a quick 5 step process you can attempt for yourself (it uses Photoshop however I'm sure the basic principles will apply to Lightroom) - http://www.corius.net/?page_id=395 . I've attached the outcome of what it looks like with an artificial flat. I also quickly ran it through Neat Image beforehand to remove the bulk of the noise.

Cheers, Evan