M42 with Pentax DSLR

[Tamtarn]

Eight images stacked in DSS Processed in PS CS2

Taken with our Pentax ist DL - From our home site

Autoguided with DSI Pro using PHD

Details 3 x 5 sec ... 2 x 30 sec ... 1 x 90sec ... 1 x 3min ... 1 X 5min - ISO 800


34791

[Astroman]

Very nice guys, nicely framed also.

[netwolf]

Thats very nice, lots of different exposures mixed to give a lot of overall detail. I hope to try this method myself once i understand how to do it.

[robin]

A great shot guys, nice framing & good processing

[browndog]

Great image - and nicely framed and processed.
Thank you for sharing. :thumbsup:

[mick pinner]

excellent image guys.

[Ric]

Great image guys, lovely colour and detail.

Cheers

[Lee]

Fantastic job, and well composited from the various exposure times too....

[dugnsuz]

That's beautiful guys,
I may have to pinch your exposure times - I've set myself a task to get an M42 worthy of putting on the wall!
Let us know your processing tips too.
All the best
Doug

[Tamtarn]

Thanks for the feedback Andrew..Fahim..Robin..Ian..Mick..Ri c..Lee..and Doug.

This is our first image using autoguiding.

We're really pleased with how this one turned out particularly using a very basic Pentax. We're not sure how far we can push it but being able to autoguide enables us to do do longer exposures now.

We hope to gather more data and do better.

[wysiwyg]

Well done guys! :thumbsup:

Good framing, you even got the running man in there.
Now that you are autoguiding, the possibilities are endless and the nights become even shorter.

[h0ughy]

wow thats nice and its is a pentax!!! lovely!!

Ok what were the ISo settings?

[Tamtarn]

Thanks Houghy thought you would appreciate the Pentax name popping up. :)

All exposures ISI 800.

[ballaratdragons]

Beautiful work Barb & David.

The colour looks very natural and the whole image is pleasing to look at. Nicely done :thumbsup:

[allan gould]

A really great shot. Guiding was spot on as well. Its good to see that the 70mm has a good home and doing its job. You really nailed that one.

[RB]

Excellent work guys, beautifully framed and great colours too.
Good to hear you're autoguiding now.

Keep up the great work.

:thumbsup:

[iceman]

That's a great shot! Very well done.

How are you saving for web? There appears to be quite a few compression artifacts..

[Dennis]

That is a simply gorgeous portrait of this incredible region in Orion. It looks picture perfect!

Cheers

Dennis

[iceman]

Oh and was this taken through the 8"? What did you guide through?

[Garyh]

Very nice Barb and Dave! I have always thought those pentax DSLR`s were too noisey for nice deepsky portraits but what ever you have done keep doing it!! :thumbsup:
very nice indeed!
cheers Gary

[Tamtarn]

Thanks for commenting Mark and Ken



Thanks again for selling us your 70mm Alan. It's taken a while to get everything up and running for autoguiding but it's been worth it.



Thanks Andrew yes the autoguiding makes things so much easier.....we're ecstatic



Mike after processing we just save the image into my pictures then resize in VSO Resizer.....Is there another way?



Thanks Dennis we appreciate your positive comments



Yes Mike taken with the Skywatcher 8" Newt guided with the Skywatcher 70x500mm which we purchased from Alan.



Gary we bought the Pentax for $699 to try imaging. Since starting prime focus in April we have been really pleased with what we have achieved with the camera.

Now with autoguiding we will see how far we can push it.

[iceman]

Barb do you process your image in Photoshop?

[Tamtarn]

Yes Mike in Photoshop CS2

[iceman]

Hi Barb.

When you're finished working your image, save it as PS2 file (as usual), then use Image->Resize and choose 800px as the width.

Then go File->Save as Web, and drag the quality slider down until the preview size (bottom left) shows < 200k jpeg.

You'll get much less compression artifacts and your images will look tonnes better!

[Alchemy]

just had a look, had to go back pages.... nice to see auto guiding is working, youve blended the different exposures well it looks seamless to me, 5 min exposures are here to stay it seems. look forward to more.

[Tamtarn]

Thanks Mike

Worked it out now, followed what you said but the quality slider wasn't there on the screen., but after seeing kens screen shots I clicked on the quality number and the slider came up so I could then make the adjustments.

Thanks again :thumbsup:

Barb

[Dietmar]

very nice orion nebula and running man!

[jjjnettie]

Terrrrrific image.

[jase]

Nicely done Barb and David. You've managed the dynamic range well. The colours presented give a natural feel to the image - visually pleasing. Keep up the good work.

[Tamtarn]

Thanks for commenting Dietz much appreciated.



Thanks Jeanette glad you liked it



Thanks for the comments Jase. M42 is really a hard one to process. Until I can learn to align and register my short and long exposure to perform a layer mask I'll have to settle for this image at this stage.

Barb

[EzyStyles]

beautiful shot! your images just keeps improving. :)

[Tamtarn]

Thanks Eric we appreciate your positive comments.
We are always looking to improve.

[danielsun]

Excellent shot!!
I know it is a hard one to capture without over exposing the core, your long and short exposures paid off for a beautiful image with plenty of outer detail!
Well done guys!!:thumbsup:

[Tamtarn]

Thanks Daniel. We hope to eventually learn how to master Layer masking :doh:which should help us improve the detail in the core a bit more.