I promised myself to post the very first image taken no matter how bad.
This was the result of no stacking and no processing other than a little tweak on brightness and contrast. My wife will learn that side over the coming weeks.
My task is to improve the polar alignment, get a few minor gadgets to make things easier and get bitten by mozzies while she is sipping hot chocolate inside on the laptop.
I PROMISE there is better to come!! Two total newbies to imaging here!
For a first attempt this is nothing to laugh about. What was your exposure ?. On the mozzies, yes i got eaten alive night before last. Had no flygaurd so i used mortien, the wife logged it for evidence to be used at a later date.
Keep up the good work and keep the images coming.
congrats on getting your first Image Grant.
I could be wrong, but have tried taking a few shots with differing focus on each shot?
if you don't use a bahtinov mask, one quick way of getting the right focus is to take 10second subs and adjust the focus very slightly for each shot. you'll quickly arrive at the optimum one by just looking at the images. even a small adjustment on the fine adjustment knob will make a difference.
it may not be perfect, but you'll keep improving.
good to know your wife is taking an interest as well.
I know a couple who gave each other filters as christmas presents, and one of them proposed with a ring in the filter box. always good to have your partner participate.
look forward to more.
Hi Grant,
A question or two. Is your camera a mono or OSC? If OSC, was the image de-bayered? There maybe more in that image than you think. Still, it's early days. So..... congrats on your conversion to the dark side.
Colour camera.
No processing yet - my wife will tackle that during the week. So, yes this image can probably be improved heaps! I am not concerned - I know things will imrpove but there is just something historic about the first image even if it looks terrible...
congrats on getting your first Image Grant.
I could be wrong, but have tried taking a few shots with differing focus on each shot?
Yeah, we got the software going on a loop taking 1 or 2 second shots and kept adjusting the image until focused. This is one of the shots from that first loop of trying to focus it. Not a serious attempt, but definitely nice to be able to at least see that it looks like a globular cluster...
Your right Grant the first image is always the memorable one, and looks just great, especially to the owner, keep at it mate, and look back at it in 12 months. !!!
I'd prefer the visual image! But with practice at imaging that will change I am sure. Also, globular clusters are not like red nebula that the human eye has trouble with in the dark.
