Tom Murdic, an amateur astronomer from Franklin, Tennessee, gave an informative presentation on "Practical Astro-photography" at our January meeting.  Below are a handful of images he has recently taken.  Tom is a member of the Barnard-Seyfert Astronomical Society and is a member of Nasa's Solar System Ambassador program.  Here is Tom's astro-image primer:

Astro Imaging Primer
1. Matching target with photography Field of View.  A great web site to assist in making that determination is "http://dso-browser.com/".

2. Equipment Preparation

•  Set custom white balance in camera (DSLR).

•  Capture "flats" field images with optical train you intend to use for your deep space imaging session for light frame calibration.

•  Capture Dark frames for light frame calibration

•  Achieve very good polar alignment of mount.

•  Balance telescope and accessories on mount.

(3) Capturing the Light

•  Focus , focus ,focus!!!!! Take time to focus on a 3rd or 4th magnitude star photographically .(15 second exposures)

•  Once focus is achieved, point scope in general direction of "Object of Interest" and calibrate auto guider.

•  Acquire target and center in field of view and begin auto guiding

•  Let auto guider run for 5 minutes before you begin your imaging run.

•  Begin imaging run with each light frame exposure set at 800 ISO and 300 seconds.

(4) Post Capture Processing

•  Calibrated Light frame.

•  Align calibrated light frames

•  Combine calibrated aligned light frames

• Adjust the composite light frame to bring out or highlight details or tweak to your liking