It's all starting to fall into place!

[cybereye (Mario)]

As it was clearish in Brisbane tonight, I set up the scope to see if the thread I'd discovered on my focuser which allowed me to directly attach my DSLR gave me prime focus.

Well guess what, after 15 months of despairing that I couldn't get prime focus on my 8" Newt, I realised I can!! (Is this another D'oh moment?!)

Anyway, inspired by Rob and Brendan, I drift aligned my scope as best I could - I still feel like I'm just twiddling knobs for the sake of it! - and took 37 30 second images of M42 at ISO800. I stacked the best 31 in DSS and then fiddled with levels and curves in PS2 and have attached the result here.

My very first attempt at M42 a few months ago made me despair at my lack of skills. This second attempt has filled me with joy!!! It shows me that maybe, just maybe, I'm heading in the right direction.

Cheers,
Mario

[iceman (Mike)]

Excellent work Mario, congratulations! That's a whole let better than my second attempt at deep space imaging!

You're definitely on the right track, keep it up!

[cybereye (Mario)]

Thanks Mike for your kind thoughts!

Once I realised I could get prime focus, the whole sky quite literally opened up!! The scope is now a lot better balanced as the DSLR is snug up against the tube rather than hanging off an extender tube and barlow combination.

And not having to use the 2x barlow to help get focus means my scope is back to being an F/6 scope rather than a slower F/12.

Cheers,
Mario

[wasyoungonce (Brendan)]

Well done Mario.

[jjjnettie (Jeanette)]

Congrats on such a nice image.
There'll be no stopping you now. I'm really looking forward to watching your progress.

[cybereye (Mario)]

Thanks Nettie and Brendan, it's nice to get such good feedback!

I was amazed at just how much detail I did get considering the amount of cloud I was dealing with. I tried to time my exposures to coincide with gaps in the clouds and most of the time I succeeded! The other times when cloud passed through the shots a yellow tint was added to the shots. I'm assuming that that was from the lights of Brisbane on the bottom of the clouds (I'm only 12km from the CBD).

I'm not sure when I'll next get out considering Cyclone Ului is lurking off the coast - another week of clouds by the sounds of things!!!

Cheers,
Mario

[Ric]

Nice shot Mario, that's a good start.

Don't worry about the "Doh" moments, I had heaps of them over the years.

Cheers

[Scorp56 (Peter)]

Nice work Mario.
I am inspired to do some imaging. It's a fairly steep learning curve
but there are great tools and technology available now.
Looking forward to some more images from you
Cheers

Peter

[multiweb (Marc)]

You're a natural mate. Nicely processed too. Can't wait to see more when you'll be guiding.

[RobF (Rob)]

Congratulations Mario. Its like a "hole in one" when it all works and you pull off something new. Good job on M42. Will be expecting more when the clouds part!

[cybereye (Mario)]

Thanks everyone, I really appreciate the positive feedback!!

Peter, it certainly is a steep learning curve - the drift aligning is something I'm only just coming to terms with!

Marc, I've got the Orion ST80 which I bought as an "up-and-go" scope but I'm also have it in the pipeline for guiding. It's just a matter of getting all the other components into place - laptop, webcam, etc. I've bodgied up a Logitech webcam and have used it attached to the ST80 to test it on the airconditioning unit on the other side of the lounge-room! I did it inside so I could see what I was doing and much to my surprise it actually worked!

When I got the 8" Dob back at the end of '08 and took my first afocal shot of the moon using a pocket digital camera up against the eyepiece, it ignited a passion for astrophotography that I didn't know I had! Since then I've added the Pentax Km DSLR, the HEQ5 Pro mount, the ST80 and other bits and pieces, all with the final goal in mind - great, crisp photos of the skies above. And this photo shows me that I'm on the right road.

I think the real clincher for me was yesterday when I had the picture developed at Big-W and the young guy behind the counter commented on it. He wanted to know some details about what was in the photo and when I said it was taken from the backyard, all he could say was "Wow!" That was nice and it put a smile on my face - see!

Rob, as I'm sure you're aware, Friday night had great clear skies here in Brissie - pity I was too sick to take the scope out!!!

Ric, I'm finding those D'oh moments go hand in hand with this passion!!

Thanks all once again,
Mario