M42

That's excellent Tony.
It that were my own image, I'd be delighted with it.

Hi Tony,
Well done on a fine image. The focus is great as is the detail and colour balance. For someone who is just starting out in astrophotography I really am looking forward to seeing more of your work. If you are looking to image the core of M42 you need to be taking subs around 15 sec with you camera here is a link to explain www.astropix.com/HTML/BEGINNER/M42HDR.HTM Now as for the noise in the image for best results is of course more data. But you can try an inverted layer mask .
Here is one other video to give you some tips
Hope these little tips helps you out.

Carl.

Thank you Michael and Carl. Appreciate the comments and advice Carl, I do need to learn more on processing so all tips welcome. I did actually blend in some 15sec subs Carl, it was a lot more overexposed originally. I did stretch the 15 sec data a bit which I probably shouldn't have but with this weather we're getting I have plenty of opportunity to experiment.
Thanks again

Tony