M42 - The Orion Nebula - DSLR

[Dave Smith]

What a wonderful night it was last Monday. There was a point half way through my session where cloud came from the West up to the zenith but stopped just short of Orion and then gradually faded away. This is my first attempt at imaging M42 since I had my camera modified.

So, this was with a Canon 40D DSLR attached to a Megrez 90 guided. It consists of 48 x 5 minute subs (=4 hours) and 48 x 30s subs blended together with darks, flats and bias frames.

Image capture with APT, stacked in DSS and processed in Photoshop CS2.

Dave

[JohnC64]

very nice shot there

[brantuk]

Beautiful shot Dave - the mod is clearly working well delivering all those beautiful red tones - very nicely processed.

[ether823]

brilliant

[bottletopburly]

superb well done

[JamesF]

Very nice, Dave.

James

[allcart]

Hmmm, thats quite nice, in a kinda super, lovely detailed, nicely processed way.

Did I say that in a kinda way that wouldn't make you think I was extremely jealous of your pic...........good.

[Gina]

WOW! That's wonderful - superb image

[Raga]

That's a fantastic image. One to be very proud of for sure.

[Moon monkey]

fantastic ......

[Dave Smith]

Thanks every one. This started with me attempting M42 with my Atik 314L+ and gave it 1 hour in each of RGB and I was dissapointed with the result so thought I would try with the DSLR which seemed to work well.

I have had another look at the CCD vs DSLR comparing the reds channel of the DSLR withe the red filtered CCD image and there is more detail in the CCD version. So, when I have more time I will have another try at processing the CCD RGB image which should be more detailed.

Whatever that produces this is my best image of M42 so far.

Dave

[allcart]

And one to be proud of Dave.

[Quatermass]

Brilliant

Sent from my GT-S5670 using Tapatalk 2

[atmenterprises]

Nice shot!!

[Dave Smith]

Thank you Allan, Mark and "atmenterprises".

Dave

[ollypenrice]

Nicely done, Dave. Aren't you going to plug your helpful tutorial??

Olly

[Dave Smith]

Thanks Olly, yes that is the plan but probably after the festivities.

Dave

[VigdisVZ]

Well done!

[Astro_king]

nice.. very beautiful I must say!!

[ianaiken]

Great image! Wilk yiu bbe combining the dSLR data with the CCD?

[Dave Smith]

Thanks Carl, Astro king and Ian.

No Ian, I won't be combining the DSLR data with the CCD as the CCD version has turned out to be rather soft.

Here is the CCD version

and for comparison the DSLR version.

Dave

[Gina]

Which scope did you use for that Dave? I mean the DSLR version. Such a wonderful image, I would like to have another go at it myself. My best efforts so far fall well short of your beautiful image.

[ianaiken]

Considerably softer. You've got to love dSLR and OSC for Nebula like this. I get similar results in my OSC to your dSLR. I've not tried it with my ATIK314L+, looks like I may not bother.

[Gina]

Seems to me that DSLRs score very well for these large multicoloured DSOs but I shall be trying the mono Atik 314L+ with prime lenses and LRGB once I get all the kit and get it set up. That won't be this year. Meanwhile I shall be using my cooled 1100D for these. I have tried the 314L+ with my ED80 and can get most of M42 in the frame but not all the surrounding dust and my Ha/OIII NB results have not satisfied me for this object. I'm very much still learning, of course. I shall concentrate on the smaller nebulae with my 314L+ at first.

[Dave Smith]

Which scope did you use for that Dave? I mean the DSLR version. Such a wonderful image, I would like to have another go at it myself. My best efforts so far fall well short of your beautiful image.

Thanks Gina. The scope used with the DSLR is a Megrez 90 with a TSflat2 field flattener. I believe it is the 4 hours + that makes the most difference.

Dave