And finally, full circle

When I decided to get serious about learning to shoot astro, if was February of this year, and Orion was still reachable in the early evening. So here is a good comparison between then and now-this shot is 55 minutes exposure, no multi-night shooting, just using what I have learned over the year. M42 is the perfect nebula to start learning with, but the level of detail in there just keeps going forever; there is no risk of getting bored with it.

I still have all the problems I started with, just in lesser degrees...vignetting is still a serious problem, and even the use of a good light box won't eliminate it. I'm still only able to use roughly half the subs I shoot, and I'm still spending more time tinkering than shooting. This shot from tonight is just going to be a foundation for more exposures; that will take care of the darkened corners and the trademark Canon DSLR banding visible up the left side, while each night's shots will bring out more and more detail inside the "fish's mouth".

It's still been a good year for learning-here's a reminder of what I was getting 10 months ago of the same target.