First Try M42

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Finally I got a night with no clouds.

So I decided to give a quick try on M42.

This is 14 120sec subs with no darks, flats or bias. ISO 800 Canon 1100d unmodified.

Taken with my Skywatcher ED80.

When Orion gets a bit higher on the sky I will give this on some more attention.

Comments and criticism are very welcome.

[VigdisVZ]

That's really nice. I'm having a go at it as soon as I get an opportunity.

[Gina]

Very nice

[NGC404]

Impressive image. Well done

[Uplooker]

Crackin' capture.

Ian

[andyman]

very nice indeed

[Advertise]

Thank you all for those very nice comments.

[SJJ]

Really nice..

[Chris]

Great first M42, much better than my first attempt with my old Achro. For your next go you might want to look at (as I plan on doing) taking some shorter 30 second subs for the core trapezium stars then layering them together with you longer subs in Photoshop. I've got a feeling that with 120 second subs theres a little more to stretch out of the running man nebula on this one as well:)

[The Viper]

Your off to a great start,much better than my first go last year.I also plan to get this imaged this winter,lets all hope for good clear skies ahead.

[Advertise]

Thanks.

Starfox: Yes I was thinking of that. I wonder if it would be any use to use 30sec, 120sec and 300sec subs and mix them all?

I´ve stretched the image as much as I dared. I shoot from inside a city with a CLS filter, so that kills alot of the running man.

But it is very possible to get more out of it if you know what you are doing in PS. I am kinda just "lol-ing" around in PS.

The Viper: Yes we can all hope for clear skies.

[x6gas]

That's a great first attempt - a very difficult target to process.

You can layer different strength stretches to control the trapezium core - instead of doing shorter captures just take, for instance, the unstretched version and a slightly stretched version and layer those over the core...

Good stuff though!

[stellawolf]

A very nice image well done