Yes, we are well past Orion season.... but I was just messing about with some images I collected back in Feb, hadn't really processed the properly, so thought I'd give it a go on yet another cloudy Melbourne night with nothing else to do.
It's easily my best ever astro-photo.
20 images, total exposure time of just under 20 minutes, at various ISO levels from 640 up to 1600. 8" Newtonian, EQ6 mount, Canon 60D, DSS and Photoshop... and a lot of perseverance at the computer to get it right.
A very pleasing display of the great nebula. Nice colour and stars jump out beautifully.
I am keen to know what method you adopt for drift alignment as I am about to tackle DSO imagery soon. I can do a basic star alignment using the NEQ6 - I understand the method used by tracking a star using the camera for say 125sec back and forth seems to be the most suited followed by an adjustment for RA and Dec?
I use a Canon 60D and am keen to learn...
Raymo.... Thanks for the compliment... but I am not very consistent at this yet. Hopefully one day I am good enough for the main forum. The original picture I made from these images was not good. Not quite sure how I was able to do so much better this time, but it has encouraged me beyond belief!
Anth10.... Drift alignment drives me nuts! Absolute bane of my life... and given I have a wife and three daughters that's saying something! Just kidding girls... love you all! I have been using the drift align functionality in PHD Guiding.... with mixed results.... but have also recently been trying the 120sec back and forth system you mention, and that seems to be pretty good.
nice work Geoff. you could possibly up a bit of noise reduction in the fainter regions but looking good, m42 is actually difficult to process because of its extreme dynamic range.
Yes.... Keeping the core brightness under control while bringing out the fainter clouds on the top right of the nebula is really tricky... But think I am finally getting better with Photoshop for my post processing.
I have been using the drift align functionality in PHD Guiding.... with mixed results.... but have also recently been trying the 120sec back and forth system you mention, and that seems to be pretty good.
