M8 First attempt

[Carl]

Ok, Don't laugh, It's my first go with my new equipment.

New Modded Canon 500d. Uv/IR filter only. Taken thru Celestron C8.
60 x 45sec exposures @ 1600iso
20 darks and 20 bias frames.
Stacked, aligned and combined in ImagesPlus. Post processing done in PhotoshopCS5.

Stars a bit bloated but we'll get there.

Oval stars in corner due to imperfection with camera alignment and innadequate distance from f6.3 focal reducer to Chip. Apparently quite solvable with an Orion C8 extension back due to be released in OZ in the next few weeks, we'll see.

No issues with polar alignment. Stars track perfectly in east, west and Zenith for over 10 minutes.

Cheers Carl

PS Thanks to all those who replied to my thread regarding my streaky stars problem. I'm hopefully close to fixing it.

[renormalised]

Nice first attempt....lots of detail in the neb!!.

Actually, I like the colour you've processed in the neb.

[CoolhandJo]

Nothing to laugh at! Great detail! I was considering modding my 500d eventually! The colours are strange? Never seen the green in M8 like this? But, still a nice up close detailed shot. :)

[mswhin63]

Very nice and beaut colours.

[jjjnettie]

That's awesome for 45sec subs. Beaut detail!

[Hagar]

Nothing here to laugh at Carl. One thing which does seem evident in most OSC cameras is an over abundace of green. There is a filter for photoshop which will remove the green. It does a good job.

If you PM Multiweb. Marcus will be able to point you to this filter.
I found Marcs link to Hastalavista green http://blog.deepskycolors.com/archive/2010/04/26/hasta-La-Vista-Green.html

With some of the green removed it is a very acceptable image.

[multiweb]

That is one pretty slick shot Carl. Nothing to shy about. Impressive. :thumbsup:

[Ric]

Very impressive details Carl.

I think your definitely on the right track.