First guided efforts - M42

Despite the absolutely awful weather we've been having in the south, I managed to get a little bit of first time data of M42.

It's not much, but it's a start.

Not bad for 3x60 sec exposures. The image has a very green/blue tinge to it though. Is that down to the FF and LPR filter? (what is that by the way?).

How did the guiding work out for you? The stars seem pretty much spot on...

Finally, no darks or flats?

Sorry for all the questions...

Dave

Hi Dave,
No problem at all, sorry if I was a little vague.

FF = Field flattener
LPR = Light pollution filter (Yes, this is the cause of the blue hue)

Guiding went great, I was very pleased. I did it through EQMOD as apposed to ST-4 and I used 15x60sec darks and 15 flats.

Good effort!
The one minute subs capture the core detail well. You need a few 3 to 5 minute subs to pick up the outer nebulosity but it depends how bad your local light pollution is.

Thanks John,
It's actually not too bad, as light pollution goes. It does require the filter though. I was thinking of doing a composite of the core and the outer nebulosity.

Just need the skies to get the data.

Just looked at it on another computer and it does look much bluer than it did on the computer I was working on it with. Some monitor calibration might be in order before I continue.

Hi Wbean,

I've not taking a deep sky image for sometime so I'm gone very rusty. looking at the image you are heading in the right direction it is very well framed stars look nice and round and I can see lots of detail in the core. The Light pollution Filter should not put that much of a Blue cast on the image. How did you take the flats? try processing the image in Photoshop using the leaves and curves and you will have much better control over your color balance. Here is a link that will help you along


Carl.