First tracked stars - Orions Belt

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foolycooly

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Simon
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After discussing with a few people, I decided the best way to learn was to just get out and see what happened - so I present a heavily butchered and most likely over processed image of Orion's Belt...

Critiques, recommendations, and pointers most heartedly accepted.

Image is made from 12 stacked images, tracked on an MSM - need to work on my polar alignment as I'm still getting trails at 30 seconds upwards - 1 minute frames were near un-useable

Stack2.jpg by Simon Stocks, on Flickr

And a single shot over Badbury Rings - the sky was amazing, but so much light pollution seeping through

IMG_1350.jpg
 
Very well done. You've captured lots of the interesting bits, including the Horsehead.

Depending on what equipment you have, it might be easier to try shorter exposures to eliminate the star trails. The shorter exposures would actually help get more detail in M42...
 
Well done for getting out there and doing it, it's a good start
 
Great start.

You have already found out polar alignment is critical for long exposures. Make sure the tripod top plate is level in all directions before attaching the tracker - use a spirit level if you have one.

But, as @Don153 says the nebula in M42 is very bright so shorter exposures will actually help.

You will need longer exposures for fainter deep sky objects though.
 
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Thanks for the feedback :)

I managed to get the leveling done through an app on my phone - I think the challenge is that I've got a Move Shoot Move, and the scope caused me some issues, but I did learn what I did wrong (and forgot to take the red LED to highlight the reticule)

Hopefully there are going to be a few more clear nights - Banbury Rings is only 15 minutes away from home - its not a complete dark site, but its good enough for me to learn, and the doggers at least provide some entertainment while I wander about with my red headlamp on

Oh, and there definitely isn't a Rokinon 135mm on the way :exit:
 
I know nothing about astro photography but I found the colours in the first one interesting. It just seems a bit too cold to be out on a clear night to me so kudos for making the effort. I suspect you are very close to getting some top notch results.
 
Excellent work, well done for getting out there ;)
 
Nice one. We've been out two Thursdays on the trot now.....!

And yes, you certainly need to be careful with exposure on the nebula.
 
Thats a great start and its easy to get hooked. I fancy getting a tracker but there's too many to choose from. I took 10 shots of Orion in the dark of the Brecon Beacons. using a
Nikon 85mm f1.8, 4s @ iso 1,000 and stacked them in DeepSkyStacker which resulted in this.

Orion-Nebula.jpg
 
Excellent, I’m still waiting for a clear sky to have a go at this
 
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