These images are a progression of attempts to take astrophotos with an EOS 60D and an iOptron Skytracker:
The Lagoon and Trifid image is perhaps the first deep sky photo that I'm really happy with. It is 10x 2 minute exposures of the Lagoon and Trifid Nebulas from my southern Sydney backyard, taken with an EOS 60D on an iOptron Skytracker. Focal length is 250mm, f/8, ISO 1600, stacked in DeepSkyStacker, and processed in Photoshop CS2. These were the best 10 frames from 15 taken, and the lens is the stock EF-S 55-250mm zoom. I'm now able to get reasonable stars with the 250mm zoom, mainly thanks to stopping the aperture down a few stops to eliminate aberrations (I should thank
Jerry Lodriguss' website for that tip and good hints on focusing a DSLR with the live view window). The Skytracker is excellent and easy to use, not producing significant trailing even at 3-5 minute exposures, so I can cut the aperture and up the exposure time.
The Rho Ophiuchi image is 10x 2 minute exposures with the 60D and EF 100mm macro at f/5, ISO 1250. Not really enough data under suburban skies, but a pleasure to begin seeing some of the structures round Antares. Pretty grainy in the dark areas.
The Eta Carina/Running Chicken region was a stack of 11x 90-second exposures (16.5 minutes total), ISO 2000, f/2.8 at 100mm focal length. I took it the week before the first two photos - much poorer star shapes from having the aperture fully open, but it was taken from a darker location in the Royal National Park before moonrise last week. Nice to (just) catch a dim hint of the little nebulae Gum 39 & Gum 41 near the Running Chicken.
Any hints or tips from others using the Skytracker and a DSLR would be much appreciated, and criticisms are welcome! I have no darks or flats in these images (I flattened the RAWs in Digital Photo Professional), that's another step on the learning curve. One question would be colour balance - on my monitor the colours are OK, but on my phone, the nebulae come out quite magenta - what do you see? Is it in the processing or just my phone?