[Placidus (Mike and Trish)]

This version is a huge improvement. Be encouraged. I can even see one, possibly two Bok globules now.

The Running Chicken is a fairly faint object compared with say the Great Orion Nebula or Eta Carinae or the Lagoon.

The more data you have, the less the noise in the final stack. Unfortunately a nine-fold increase in exposure only gives a three-fold improvement in noise, so we're talking really long exposures. We put in sixty five hours for our version, and that was with a 20 inch scope.

The vast bulk of things other than M42 , Eta Carinae, the Lagoon, and most open and globular clusters require many hours of data.

To get up and running more quickly, have a go at some bright open clusters, where you can get a beautiful image with just say one or two hours of exposure, and short subs. This is a good time of year for them. Globular clusters can also be done reasonably quickly.

Best,
Mike