First Celestial Pics

I started reading the Astronomy and Celestial threads a couple of months ago and started to get hooked.

I bought a remote timer / trigger just to try some things out.
While on vacation at Hilton Head Island for Christmas my dad, brother-in-law, and myself went out shooting on Christmas Eve.
I had looked at the moon phases and for a month in a half had been dying to get out there on that night as there was no moon out. Lucky for us it was the only clear night down there.

I think we all got hooked after our first night out, and my dad who has been a pro photographer for almost 35 yrs now was considering getting a telescope now.

Here are a few of my first pics, still soo much to learn.
I really like how the star trails pic turned out

18mm, f/4, ISO 1600, 10sec

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Here are a couple of stacks using DSS, but I'm not happy with the results.
1. I think the main problem is I didn't take all that great of pics to stack for DSS.
I found my biggest challenge was focusing on the stars. I tried using live view, but couldn't ever really see anything in it.

2. I've read a couple of tutorials on using DSS, but I still really don't know what I'm doing.
Maybe it's what I was shooting (Orion), but i don't see many colors and the nebula in Orion just looks like a blob.

34 pics @ 3.2sec, f/3.5, 18mm, ISO 1600

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At 18mm, you should be able to take 20 - 25 second exposures before any trailing becomes apparent. With Live View, you have to increase the ISO to the max to bring out the stars. At that point, set your focus, and then lower the ISO back down before taking the shots, being careful not to touch anything that will throw off your focus. Use of the remote trigger or self timer is a must.

I like your pictures with the palm tree. One last thing, for the Orion nebula, unfortunately 18mm just isn't enough reach to bring out any detail. 18mm is only good for widefield.

I'll second what Joe said; it looks like you just missed focus on your Orion shots, and you need a much longer focal length to see much of the nebulae.