I spent some time processing the image I took of M42 with The Gimp (The Gimp is a freeware image processing tool similar to Photoshop). As you can see, a little processing goes a long way in bringing out details in the image. (click on the image for a larger version)
Here's the original, unprocessed image for comparison:
Some people say that it's not possible to take decent deep-sky images without long, guided exposures, but clearly the image above demonstrates the falsity of that claim. Granted this picture is far from magazine quality, but I don't think it's too bad given that I'm a complete newbie and this is the very first deep-sky image I've ever taken with a telescope I've only used for one full night!
I've ordered an f/6.3 focal reducer/corrector. This is a lens that screws onto the visual back of the telescope which turns the f/10 telescope into a "faster" f/6.3 optical system. The net result is that it reduces exposure times by a factor of three. So that means that a 30-second exposure at f/6.3 is equivalent to a 90-second exposure at f/10. This should help in capturing more detail at the exposure times I'm limited to since I currently can't take guided long exposures.
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