Re: Mi first extra-terrestrial pics ever!!

Very nice first image. I think you are at about the limit of sharpening that the data can handle; it is just starting to show significant grain - any further sharpening would only make it worse. The answer to that is stacking larger numbers of images.

Ron Wodaski

Thanks Ron. Alas, this was my first AVI experience and I recorded only 30 seconds at 5 fps which gave me a total of 150. I then processed them using the program Iris and, during stacking, 13 were discarded, so I ended up with only 137. I've applied an unsharp mask to the 3 RGB photos(sigma 1.5) and this is the outcome. Next time I'll go for a larger number of frames.
According to you, should I use a faster fps setting (perhaps 10fps @ res 640x280)to obtain a larger number of frames over a shorter time span, or should I work with movie lengths @ 5fps?
I seize the opportunity for a further question: I have a digital SLR (Fujifilm Finepix Pro S2: 6.17 effective megapixels; up to 12.1 megapixel images). What can I do as far as DSO, emission nebulae to be specific, are concerned? I believe the max I can squeeze out, without a cooled CCD, is about one minute exposures. Multiple exposures? How many, if the limit is one minute?
Apologies for the long message.
Thanks and ciao
Gianluca

PS I just started reading your book: thanks for writing it. I was adviced to read it before even buying a CCD camera. I can't wait to get access to the color copy on the website.