So this probably counts as my first astro photo through a scope. At least the first one I've processed. Picked it because it was high in the sky, plus should be a pretty simple target.
About 8 x 30 second exposures, Canon 700D DSLR, 8" f/5 newt. Light pollution is reasonably bad, plus I get a bit of star trailing with over 30 second exposures, so I'm not sure if that's normal if unguided or my polar alignment was a bit off. I'm reasonably happy with it, though clearly there is a way to go.
If it's cloudy it'll give you something to do. If you move the nebula out of view you can see that the whole frame has a reddish tinge. Get rid of that, and you'll have a very nice image.
raymo
nice effort. I agree its a bit too red. maybe have another crack at it. if using photoshop perhaps choose 'autocolour' first to help balance the red blue green.
Yeah the red channel was quite shifted to the right compared to the others in the original data. My processing enhanced it too. Anyway, I found I'd done a bunch more longer exposures, so I've stacked them all, used an auto colour balance as suggested and have played with curves to tease out some of the detail. I think it looks considerably better. Plus it makes me want to get out and collect more data - damn clouds!
Whoa that that last process certainly made a huge difference. I'm learning as well. I try to get an idea of what others have done with similar spec gear and take particular note if the camera was stock or modified by removal of the IR filter. After seeing a fair few, you now the kind of balance you are chasing. Great work though - I bet you feel like you have achieved something special (and you have).
Enjoy!
