Orion Nebula - any advice appreciated!!

[cybereye (Mario)]

Hi!!

Well after an extended hiatus from the telescope, I managed to take some images of the Orion Nebula on Monday night. For those that aren't aware, that was the day that the Sun made one of its rare appearances in Brisbane. It was also the night of an almost full Moon!!

Anyway, desperate to try out my new Baader MPCC and UHC-S filter, I forged on anyway, despite the fact that the bright, bright Moon was not very far from Orion. The attached image is what I've been able to process in the last two nights. There is a good deal of noise present and I think that was due to the inclusion of 2x5 minute exposures. I'm discovering that summer is not a good time to take images using a DSLR!! Anyway, while stacking the images using DSS, I came across some issues that people may be able to give me some advice on.

I took a series of images which consisted of:

11x30 second exposures, ISO800
6x2 minute exposures, ISO800
2x5 minute exposures, ISO800
1x30 second, 1x2 minute & 1x5 minute darks
1 flat
Guiding using PHD

The issues I had are as follows:

1.) Is it correct to throw all these files into DSS and let it sort everything out? It seems that it makes a master dark file from the 3 that I used and to me this would be wrong. Is this other people's understanding?

2.) Is it better to have 3 separate runs of DSS using the relevant light and dark files?

3.) If I create 3 separate files, is it better to stack those together in DSS or should I use PS?

The image that I have attached has had 3 separate files produced in DSS ( 30 second, 2 minute and 5 minute) and then I've manually stacked it in PS. There was a slight bit of rotation but I don't think it's that bad.

Overall, with all things taken into consideration, I'm pretty happy with this image. It looks like the MPCC has done its job well as has the UHC-S filter. I've based this on my previous images of M42 taken with the same setup except for the Baader inputs.

Any feedback to my questions and/or image would be greatly appreciated.

Cheers,
Mario

PS Many thanks to Brendan for his advice on how to machine my Skywatcher focuser collar and 2" adapter in order to use the Baader MPCC.

[NorthernLight (Max)]

Hi Mario,

1, 2) treat every serius of exposures incl the correct darks as one image, don´t throw it all into DSS

3) align and merge them manually in PS using masks to reveal the details


there is a nice tutorial available that gives you some hints on how to perform it: http://atalas.businesscatalyst.com/M...Photoshop.html

Cheers

Max