Yet another newbie's M42

[Visionoz (Bill)]

Hi All

Need some critique to try to improve my astrophotographic skills and processing - just recently been to a 2-night DSO trip with the ASWA group to Dryandra in WA, there were at least 40+ members present and we had a very good first night, however the last night was ruined by large dark rolling clouds and the stars were playing peek-a-boo with us the whole night thru!!

Anyhow this M42 shot is my second attempt at it - please comment
Scope: Vixen VC200L witxen F/R 6.4 and (I think a mistake to leave the Baader SkyGlow filter in from my last attempt of using it in my LP backyard - didnt realise it until I got home!) on EQ6Pro mount, unguided
Exposure: 11 x 230secs @ ISO800
Processing: DSS & CS2

Need advice if it would have been better if I had taken a range of varying exposures and then stacked the whole lot? Any suggestions would be welcome, thanks!

Bill

[allan gould]

tHAT IS AN EXCELLENT FIRST SHOT-FAR BETTER THAN ENYTHING THAT i DID I THE BEGINNING eXCELLENT FOR UNGUIDED AS YOU HAVE NAILED THE ALIGNMENT AND FOCUS. wELL DONE.

[Bassnut (Fred)]

Caps problem right there Alan (I bet you type looking at the kybrd, as I do), yes, for that exposure, you have the rig well aligned, well done, colour is a bit out there, but with some more PS skills youd be there in a flash. Yes, some shorter expoures blended in PS would help core blow out.

[multiweb (Marc)]

Very good. Tracking and focus are spot on. You just need to tone down the core. You can do that by using the shadow/highlight filter and a bit of masking in PS or just do a couple of short exposure for the core only. Other than that it's excellent.

[atalas]

Hi Bill

Well,It's a great start like the guy's say! cause there's lots to learn,but you will get there.

His a link of some free tuts that will help lots....http://www.ip4ap.com/IP4AP_Tutorials_Video.html

[RobF (Rob)]

Nice to know I'm not the only one who forgets to take off the light pollution filter at a dark site!

Fantastic effort for your 2nd try Bill!
Expect to see more please....

[Visionoz (Bill)]

Thanks guys for looking and passing the all important "tips" - that's what I need plenty of at the moment as I am learning my way thru!!
I must learn how to darken the surrounding area outside the main subject area without affecting it and that will be sweet!

Yep, and also did forget the counterweights too! or the power cord for the battery pack - I'm sure we've all done that at one time or another in our excitement to get to the DSO site!!

It's all part of the fun anyway, just a hobby to indulge in rather than paste one's face in front of the goggle-box!

Cheers!
Bill

[Robbie]

Unguided!!!!!! outstanding

[Inmykombi (Geoff)]

Hi Bill,
I had to go back for a second and third look I liked it so much.

I didnt mind the bright core, even though others didnt.
It gave it a " Natural " look I think.

The colour to me looked like a purposeful filter choice. thats what I would tell everyone if I took the image.

I like it very much.

Keep up the good work .

Geoffro

[Visionoz (Bill)]

Thanks Robbie for your compliments - hope that alignment and tracking stays put and remains solid as it is now for unguided work, though I have a Orion Starshoot Autoguider it has not seen any work so far as it apparently is not needed!

Geoffro - I don't know why the color is as it is now!! Before I posted it, it did look more bluey than very reddish - perhaps my fiddling around after seeing other shots of M42 influenced the way it ended up plus the fact that my new laptop has not even been color-calibrated for PS CS2 work yet - I have since discovered that there are more details in the image than what is showing in this particular pix so I will try to brush up more on my CS2 processing techniques before posting any more shots, also been too busy recently with work hence this belated reply and the full moon around does not lend to spending time for astro-work at all

Cheers, Bill