This is the first time I’ve ever attempted this sort of image. I left the telescopes in the house for this one, just taking out the Canon 450D and 200mm f/2.8L lens on my unguided EQ3-2 mount. I shot ten images of four minutes exposure at ISO800 and f/4.5 together with five darks and stacked them all using Deep Sky Stacker, tweaking levels and curves in Photoshop. For a first attempt I guess it’s ok, but I really didn’t get the focus right and it shows. I’m pleased at least to have picked up the some indication of the dust lanes.
What really amazes me about this picture is that all the stars are actually in the Milky Way, so far closer than the three galaxies (M31, M32, M110) visible.
