First dabble into astrophoto: Orion neb...i think

[Vartigy]

Well I finally got my collimation sorted on my dob.
Took it out onto the front driveway last night to give it a whirl.
What started as checking out the moon in amazing clarity continued onto checking out the orion constellation to compare the changes i made.
Well low and behold I found my first nebula I believe.
Correct me if im wrong anyone (please!), but i think I found the orion nebula?
Heres a very dodgy photo of it. Took it with a digital camera through the eyepiece by hand.

Inside the blue cloud I remember there was a cluster of 4 brilliant stars and around 4-6 bright stars around the outside of the cloud.

Can anyone confirm this viewing for me?
Don't want to look like an ass when bringing some friends around to tell them what it is.

Cheers,

Aaron.

[troypiggo (Troy)]

Difficult to tell from the shaky image, but from your description sounds like it.

[Omaroo (Chris Malikoff)]

LOL! Many of us started this way Aaron.

You may certainly tell your friends that "that" (pointing up) is M42 - the Great Orion Nebula.

I've just tweaked the levels in Photoshop to show you a little more of the shape you've captured.

Welcome to astrophotography

[renormalised (Carl)]

Shaky start there Aaron

It's a start, though. What you want to do is goto here...Bintel, and get yourself an Orion SteadyPix SLR Camera Mount. That'll allow you to secure your digital to the mount and move it upto your eyepiece. That way you can take the pic without shaking

[renormalised (Carl)]

Something went wrong with the last message (lost the cursor and couldn't add links!!!). Here's the Bintel link.

[TrevorW]

Perserverance is the way to acheivement

Cheers

[spearo (Frank)]

AAron,
Chris is right, you did indeed capture the Great Orion.
frank

[Hagar (Doug)]

A bit of a shaky image but a great start. Yes M42. Good images take a while and a bit of cash so start saving, get some guiding and you will be away.

Good start.

[Vartigy]

Cheers for the feedback guys.
Always good to hear from those with more knowledge than one self.

Aaron.