Orion Nebular

Nicely done - it's a nice feeling when you produce an image from Orion

Nice first try!

Some tips if I may.

1. Get a Bahtinov mask for focusing. A lot of the time, the infinity mark is wrong. Point it at a bright star. Zoom in on the star on live view. Then align the straight defraction spike in the centre of the two diagonals. Then you'll be focused.

2. Get a light pollution filter. Hoya and Cokin do good ones, Pig Iron ones are ok but a lot cheaper. Sometimes with camera lenses, a front filter can cause issues. Calibration images will help to mitigate that.

3. At f8, you could have doubled your exposure. Try opening your lens up. Then shoot. See how the CA is. If it's bad close a step or two. The basic rule of thumb is - longer exposure and more images equals better images (it's called data... the more the better. I did a 7hr shoot on 1 image!!)

4. Take calibration images if you feel like it. These will help massively. Easy to do.... 10 x Darks - these are shot at the same ISO, focus and same shutter speed as your light images. 20 x Bias - set your shutter speed to its fastest, keep same ISO and focus. Shoot these at the same time as your light images. You want the same temperature for them.15 x Flats - shoot these in daylight, put a white cloth, tissue or tissue paper over your lens. You want diffused light. You can do them at the same time, just make sure your light source is diffused and covers the full frame. Then set the camera to shutter proriry, same f stop, ISO and focus.

These will all help to get rid of noise, dust on lens and/or filters, and give it more definition. Note - your light images. You are best to leave a gap of half your shutter speed... so 60 secs, leave a 30 sec gap. This will allow your sensor to cool.

6. Get Siril.... it's a free sortware package for stacking, and stretching astro images. Rich at Deep Space Astro does some really good TUTORIALS.

7....

THIS IS A WARNING!

Astrophotography is addictive and bloody expensive!!!! I got into it 3 plus years ago. I flogged all kindsa gear, including 3 Pentax bodies, took out a bank loan, and conned me missus in to letting me abuse her credit card, and had countless PayPal Pay in 3 to get the kit i want.....

But once you get it right.... the results can be jaw dropping!

Oh.... one last thing.... you'll develop a deep seated hatred of weather forcasters.... the lying b@*%&#@s!

Thanks for the words of wisdom Spad I do have a Bahtinov mask but I mislaid it but have now found it so will give it a try. I am considering a 300mm prime lens.

Are you using a tracking system?

Pentax Astrotracer with O-GPS1 KP with 55-300 zoom lens @ 300mm.

Ahhh.... I tried an Astrotracer, I did not like it. It was to limited for what I wanted to do.

Also you wont be able to leave gaps between shots. The sensor can only move so far....