M42 Nebulae

[astro mick]

Hi.

This is a colour image of the M42.

H-Alpha 30x240secs.

Red. 20x200 secs.

Green 20x 220 secs.

Blue 20x 240 secs.

H-Alpha blended into the RGB data to get better depth.

The image needs Flats applying,but as yet have not taken them.

The image took over 1 month to aquire all the Data,The RGB data was taken during nearly Full Moon.

Taken with a Celestron 80ED MX916 mono Camera.

[astro mick]

Hi Guys.

Yes this was a poor image,should,nt have posted.

Had another go at the processing,i think it looks a bit better.

If not i will still persevere.

Thanks anyway.

Mick.

[nmoushon]

No you did very well for grabbing that with almost a full moon out. Which of course effected your image. Still good shot though. A bit wider FOV would be better. Your cutting out some of the fainter nebulosity which will really add to the image once you get some more data. One thing that might help is to keep your RGB all at the same exposure. If your trying to get shorter exposure times so to not over expose the trap area then go with different set of exposure. i.e. 20 x 100sec RGB, 20 x 150sec RGB, 20 x 200sec RGB and so on. But damn good start though!

Spent about 10 in in PS and really only added some layer masks. See! You got lots of data there! A more experienced PS person could prob pull out even more.

[astro mick]

Hi.

Thanks for your kind reply,and am well impressed by your results with the image.

Yes its difficult with M42,due to the core burning out,and maybe shorter exposures would be better for this object.

When money allows i,m going to get the Skywatcher 0.8 Reducer/Flattener,which hopefully will give a wider field of view.

I certainly will have another go at this object,perhaps under darker skies.

Clear skies.

Mick.