Now for a slightly more "serious" attempt with slightly fancier contrast stretching using colour curves. Major upgrade in equipment - use of a tripod! This enables you to frame the subject better :-) Closed down the lens to f2.8. ISO set at 1600. In practice, if you plan to stack your frames, it does not matter much whether you use ISO 800, 1600 or 3200. ISO 3200 enables you to actually see something on that camera LCD. ISO 1600 seems to have less in-camera processing than 3200, so it's probably the best compromise in Canon DSLRs. Note less prominent magenta rings around the bright stars, and better star shapes around the edges. But this is a stack of only three 10-second frames. Clouds rolled in and then it started raining :-( Welcome to the trials and tribulations of astrophotography. The brightest star in the middle is Alpha Centauri. Next bright star to its right is Beta Cantauri and further right you find a yellowish star. That's the northernmost star of the Southern Cross (Crux). It's pointing downwards towards the South Celestial Pole. To the left and downwards of Crux is the Coal Sack. The horizon is actually along the right edge. Hope I have whetted your appetite to try your hand at deep sky astrophotography. It really does not need to get very complicated. Initially anyway ;-) For more stuff peruse my primary website: http://www.samirkharusi.net/