The little Heard

I took this a few nights ago, just managed to process it a little and to my pleasent surprise i captured a little more nebula than i expected.John M i see your on line i was just comparing it to your own which was a 30 second exposure.You said that you wanted to try a little longer exposure well this was a single 90 second shot ISO 400 at f5.6 90-300mm canon lens piggybacked on a C11".By the way John my stars are not as sharp as your's is this a tracking issue or am i slightly out of focus any suggestions would be great .

The image would be a good idea
farm3.static.flickr.com/2362/2235793016_1d084017d5_b.jpg

Nice pic. Some nice nebulocity there. Looks EVER SO SLIGHTLY out of focus.

Dogstar,

Well done on capturing a great image. I can definitely see more nebulosity there.

The reason my stars are slightly sharper is probably down to the exposure time. Less time = less time to go wrong. My current mount isn't up to more than 30secs, though I hope to change that soon. Also I shot at ISO200 which although less sensitive it is also more forgiving of any anomalies during imaging. The main reason I shoot at ISO 200 though is because of Light Pollution. I try to shoot more subs at a lower ISO and stack them to reveal detail, though there are lots of things that this wont work for - the only answer is longer exposures (M45) which means better tracking, steadier mounts and darker skies. I occasionally try ISO 400 and above but even 30" exposures just end up as an orange glow due to light pollution. So - my new years resolution is to spend a week in some dark sky location with my new mount and scope and rediscover the sky.

Its sometimes disheartening to see some of the great photographic results found on these boards (though inspirational too, and I am not taking away from others accomplishments) when your own photos seem mediocre in comparison. Until you realise what you are accomplishing with the limited resources you have to hand.

There is only one piece of advice that I can give you - and that is - Do the best you can with the kit you have, and do not upgrade the kit you have until you have mastered and and gotten the last, and every bit out of it. Then move on to the next step and start your learning process all-over again.

Hey thanks John some sound advice there.Just one thing i have found that for short exposures say up tp 90 seconds i dont see the benifit of taking multiple frames.Hey PJ i hope it was the good eye you used to look at the image with :lol: and here's hopeing for a speedy recovery.

Oh and John thanks for the comment on flicker for the MilkyWay image i left a reply glad you liked it i might post it here on the board's.I just took it tonight i nearly froze to death :lol: the clouds in it turned into a snow blizard about 10 min after that shot.