[iceman (Mike)]

Hi all

This image of M47 (left side), M46 (right side) and NGC2438 (planetary nebula in M46) was taken on Sunday morning, about 3am.

Transparency and seeing were both very good. My polar alignment wasn't great so I couldn't go 120s exposures, but 90s worked ok with minimal trailing.
The sky was getting brighter and I wanted to image Mars, so I only took 10x 90s exposures.

This image is a big improvement over my previous ones through the ED80, but it's not so much the way i'm capturing the images (that's the same as before) - I think my processing has improved using ImagesPlus. I still can't get the "automated" image processing to work with good results, but if I convert the RAW's to TIF's first, stack the darks to create a master dark, calibrate the lights with the darks separately, and then align/combine the calibrated lights, the images comes out well.
I must be doing something wrong with the settings in the "automated" routine, because they just come out too dark with no detail.

So anyway, details:
- EQ6 + ED80 + unmodded 350D
- 10x 90s lights (unguided), 10x 90s darks all at ISO1600
- Calibrated, aligned and stacked in ImagesPlus
- DDP in ImagesPlus, noise-reduction and curves in Photoshop.

Once I get my 0.8x WO reducer (should be here in a week or two), the field will be flatter. I really need to work on my drft alignment too (ie: not be so lazy).

Anyway it's slowly getting there. I'm happy with this double-cluster image, my first of this region of sky.