Hi,
This is my first try with the equipment so please be gentle
I have lots to learn.
Setting up the mount in my backyard, balancing in RA and DEC, collimating the OTA, focusing on a bright star, polar alignment (thank heavens for Sharpcap), 3-star alignment
I didn't realize it would be such an involved process
Anyway I finally got everything setup and was so tired I ignored the calibration frames completely and decided to go for an EEA approach. I would just pick a target in the east 30 degrees above horizon and let Sharpcap do its 'live stacking' magic for half an hour for each target.
The results weren't very good so I ended up doing some post processing in GIMP anyway (but only played around with stretching color channels).
I'm not using any coma corrector or light pollution filter of any sort (apart from the IR block on the camera)
Please have a look:
M42 the Orion nebula:
Flame and horsehead:
Tarantula nebula:
Moon:
All the pictures above were taken on the same night with 83% moon illumination.
All suggestions are welcome. I am going to get a coma corrector and some sort of light pollution filter eventually. And I'm watching youtube videos on calibration frames so will eventually try to start using them.
Suggestions please.
Cheers Ahmed