M42 - Horsehead Nebulae - 1st attempt with camera lens

[Carole]

As stated this is my first attempt with a camera lens to get a DS object (I sort of skipped this stage when getting into imaging and went straight for scope imaging).

My first DS image with a camera lens.
Canon 450D & 18 - 200mm zoom lens @ 200mm F5.6 800iso
Mixture of 10 x 5mins, 15 x 180secs and 9 x 30secs for the core
NEQ6 guided

Not a patch on Fay's image, but obviously using different equipment.
Waxing gibbous Moon which gave some gradients, most of which I managed to get rid of.

Stars are a bit squiffy here and there, guess this is another learning curve.  Any thoughts on this? 



Then for fun I added Ha data from previously taken images obviously taken with scope and mono camera.

[MarkS]

That's a really good attempt.

I'm afraid that squiffy stars are a frequent problem with camera lenses - especially zoom lenses.  You will be much better off using a good quality prime lens i.e. a non-zoom lens.

Mark

[RobertM]

That's pretty good considering you've used a zoom.  IMHO it's only worth persevering with it if you don't look too closely at the corners.

Robert

[Carole]

Thanks Mark and Robert.  So no remedy then for the stars?

You will be much better off using a good quality prime lens i.e. a non-zoom lens.

There was about £400 difference in price as I managed to get this lens on Ebay 2nd hand, so I bought it to "give it a go" and see how I get on.  If I decide to "persevere with using a lens", then I'll upgrade later on. 

There were just a few widefield targets I wanted to get this being one of them, so didn't want to spend a fortune. 

Carole

[RobertM]

I'm seriously considering the Samyang 135 f/2 which should be usable wide open with your canon.  Samyang do have a bit of a problem with quality control but if you get a good one then it will be superb.

Robert

[Carole]

Would that fit a Canon camera?

Carole