M42 & NGC 1977: My first ever astrophoto, Nils

M42 & NGC 1977: My first ever astrophoto

M42 & NGC 1977: My first ever astrophoto, Nils

M42 & NGC 1977: My first ever astrophoto

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Acquisition details

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Description

This is my first ever astrophoto with a telescope and a mount. I'm not new to photography, but taking images of the stars apart from the occasional wide angle shot of the Milky Way is something completely new to me.

The total integration time was about 1 hour and 40 minutes acquired under a Bortle 4 sky over the course of two nights, with the moon at around 50% and some high altitude clouds coming in more often that I would have liked. It's a composite of different exposure times. I let DSS stack the best 85% of all my shots: 

11 lights @ 15sec
63 lights @ 30sec
44 lights @ 120sec
10 darks @ 15sec
11 darks @ 30sec
14 darks @ 120sec
39 flats
51 biases

After stacking the images in DSS I did a basic edit in Siril before doing most of the work in Photoshop. Overall I think I'm pleased with the image considering I was still struggling with the absolute basics like polar alignment and the blistering cold of -11°C. I'm very aware that the stars are not perfect and I have a long journey ahead of me, but it was so much fun that I am already thinking about retiring that pesky Canon EOS 2000D that I bought used online. 

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M42 & NGC 1977: My first ever astrophoto, Nils