M42 and beehive+saturn, skylux70, anyone want a challange?

Hi,
I wanted to put the skylux through abit of imaging last night to see how it performs (with the 300d) and what size FOV is possible.
Here are 2 uncropped and minimally processed (size+levels only)

www.irishastronomy.org/user_resources/files/1138626160-m42.jpg


www.irishastronomy.org/user_resources/fi...8-beehive+saturn.jpg


You can see the overexposed elongated shape of saturn rings..
The stars appear very blue,I'm hoping that after the filter mod thatb I'll be doing in april, that the stars dont appear so strongly blue.

It was piggybacked on the 12" SCT so tracking was not an issue, both images used exposures of 33 seconds on iso1600,
Focusing was quite easy which is just as well as I had no choice but to do it manually.
Its only when you try taking pictures without the light pollution filter do you realise how good it works, I dont have the right adapters to use the sct filter with the 1.25 inch barrel the scope comes with.
So, i havent bothered removing the light pollution from either of these pics. To everyone here, feel free if you want to have a go at processing these images, and do post your results.

Do you have the originals? Are they too big to post? If so, is there someone else you can put them for download?

Its an interesting challenge...

Cheers
Dave McD

Nice images Dave!

Nice images, i tried removing the light polution

Jeeze Eic, you've done a good job! I'd be proud of a clean up like that - if only I could take pictures like Dave Lillis!

Seanie

Eirik,
Still some minor vignetting in the center, but thats a great job!!. you're turning into an expert quickly
I bet you've found that its hard to remove the pollution and try keep the red of the nebula.
I'd have my own way of removing it, all the same can you describe how you did it

Dave McD, the orig is abit big and to be honest, you'd be best off to work on the file I've put up here.