The Great Orion Nebula

Last night I decided to take another stab at M42. After capturing my light frames, I started to change the battery and accidentally bumped the camera. There was no way for me to get back in exactly the same position. Discouraged, I only took a few dark frames since I did not think it would matter. This morning I processed them both with and without the darks. I also forgot to bring out my material to give my flat field frames. So not an optimal night, and I also have a sore throat this morning! Then I continue to be inexplicably drawn to this hobby, HA! Here is the result of both, the first without darks and the second with them.

Information for the photos:

8 inch Newtonian reflector mounted on an Atlas
unguided, approximately 11 frames at 15 second
approximately 40 frames at 30 seconds
unmodified rebel 6.8 megapixel version
baader 2 inch UV IR cut filter

Processed using deep sky stacker, pixinsight, and the gimp


Things to improve:

Get a coma corrector!
Get guiding to work!
Learn how the process image functions work better!
Be sure to accurately capture dark and flat frames!