Guided M42

[mick pinner]

this is the first guided image l have done. l spent about 4 hours drift aligning over the last 3 nights and have it up to 25 min with no drift at all.
please ignore the colour and light pollution, image was taken to check guiding accuracy.
image with Zenithstar 80 and Canon 350D @ iso 800
1 x 10 minute guiding with LX 200.

[richardo]

Hi Mick,
it certainly gets to be fun when you can get guiding up and running and the trick is definitely to get polar alignment spot. Not to mention a good mount and gear set.
Although M42 isn't really one you need a great deal of time on with sub exposures... still a very good object to do equipment tests with, bright and large!

If you have PhotoShop, a great trick for you guys with light polluted skies is to go into... levels/ double click on the black point marker, select a nice charcoal black with an even amount of red and green and up the blue by about 1. Personal taste here.
Go OK and click the dropper on the darkest part of your image...
You'll find this will revert your background to a good black point and won't affect your colours on the main object.
Works a treat.
Still with light pollution comes gradients, that's just another bit of fun to deal with:)

Noticed a fair bit of chromatic aberration (CA) to your bright stars as well.... might need to drop in a 'minus violet' filter if your going to use the ZS 80 for wide field stuff..... this will reduce the effect of the violet fringes on your bright stars...
All fun and games with this game...
Still your colour to the main neb looks good!

Hope you don't mind me commenting;)
Cheers
Rich

[mick pinner]

not at all Rich, all comments welcome.

[iceman]

Nice result Mick, 25 minutes - that'd be fantastic.

[Shawn]

Miick, only 4 hours, Ive spent twice that and still out, well done..

Shawn

[rogerg]

I used to have mine like that a few months back... then it shifted slightly for some reason :( .. then my pointing accuracy dipped :( , then my LX got taken out by lightning :sad:

Sorry, enough from me... good image but as has been suggested, I'd do the double-click on the background colour thing. :thumbsup:

[mick pinner]

it must be the wedge you sold me.

[[1ponders]]

Nicely done Mick. Looking forward to a 20 x 20 min stack from you soon ;)

[Shawn]

Must be....:lol: