First decent single exposure shot

Ironically I have a number of exposures and created a stacked image, but it isn't even as good as one of the single exposures.

I live in Melbourne (Aus) suburbia so light pollution is extreme, so I am taking small steps whilst in 'isolation' and battling overcast. I am shyte at PS so this is the best I could get before deciding it was as good as I can get it.

Gear; 1500D with a CLS filter, Polarie tracker and 70-200 canon L.

This is very similar to what we all started off with How many exposures do you have? Are you using Deep Sky Stacker to stack them? If you can shoot any more I would recommend 1600ISO f/4 and 30sec or longer as long as your tracking is good. With good polar alignment and balance you may be able to get 1 to 2 minutes. Get some Dark Frames too, 10 is plenty. Flats will help as well 20 or so. You can probably get some great nebulocity with your setup. You can get plenty of processing help on here and Youtube. Keep taking steps to better images.

Excellent start! You might like this video. He goes through everything from capture to processing M42.

https://www.youtube.co​m/watch?v=Qb1ceFM-DkQ

Thanks guys, I am using Siril which sometimes seems to do okay and other times, not so much. It is most likely what I am doing as I lack a real understanding of the software. I have around 20 or so exposures, plus some darks and flats but I am yet to stack them and make usable files. I have no idea what effect that'll have on the end result. I might try DSS and see if it is any more intuitive or noob friendly.

The tracker I am using is okay, but I need to work on my polar alignment. In another thread I got some ideas but at the moment I'm kind of eyeballing my polar alignment so I am stuck at relatively low exposure times so I don't get trailing. Every time I do some more, things are getting easier. Sooner or later I will be able to justify a decent telescope.

It's probably a week or more till the skies clear before I can try again, so I'll work on processing what I have.

Deep Sky Stacker is a breeze to use and "noob friendly". Just drag and drop your images. Tell DSS if they're LIGHTS, DARKS, FLATS. You will be amazed at what stacking can do.

Basic Youtube tutorial https://youtu.be/s8pu6​fZTP_I

thanks mate... gave it a whirl and it had some issue with the camera model (1500d). I'll have another look at shortly. I'm finding this new aspect of photography quite addictive .. and time consuming