Orion wide-field in H-alpha

[Martin-Devon]

With poor skies (loads of rain for weeks here in Devon) and Moonlight about, I took some H-alpha images across Orion on the nights of 9th & 11th January. I was hoping to get M42 and the Horsehead all within 6 frames, but in the end it took 8 frames. There's just over 9 hours of data here. It's pretty noisy, some of the processing is a bit botched but until the nights improve this is all I can do for the moment. I'm getting an ever-increasing desire now for a wide-field CCD!

Thanks for looking,

Martin

[Epicycle]

It's always wonderful to see a wide field of this area, but in this one I particularly like all the detail in between M42 and the Horsehead.

What exposure length did you use for the subs?

[stargazerslivingroom]

Stunning...Quite stunning!

All you can do??

Fantastic!

Steve

[nmoushon]

It is noisy but holy cow thats a lot of detail! Nice capture!

[cloudbuster]

Stunning, Martin! Roll on the colour!

[Purplehayze104]

if ya look closely in between horse head and m42 slightly on the lower part of pic either its my eyesight (also long day) looks like there an long thin angel type figure

cracking pic thou

regards

john

[symesie04]

Its different and seems to have a blue-ish tinge. Did you process M42 seperately on layers masks? it seems to look slightly out of place. But i like it, its bright and very wispy, lots of detail and a great FOV.

[x6gas]

That's fantastic Martin - especially given the weather.  It's a wonderful area of sky that I could never tire of and you've done brilliantly well to stitch it all together.

I know what you mean about the attraction of bigger chips, but I'm going the other way with the cheaper alternative of using a camera lens on my 383L!

But back to this.  I too get a bluish background but I like it - like an astro version of sepia!  Lovely work.

[laser_jock99]

Nice- good to achieve something in the moonlight.

[Martin-Devon]

Many thanks for the comments above, these are really appreciated. I've applied a mild deep-blue filter in Photoshop to the greyscale image - just my personal preference really, so that accounts for the blue-ish 'wash' you can see; I often do this to my greyscale images.

Epicycle, you asked about the subs, these varied from frame-to-frame (due to pesky clouds) but each has at least 6 x10min subs, and several have more than this.

Symesie004, you are correct, I tried Anna Morris' layer mask M42 technique for the first time, and didn't really do justice to it, I need to practice more!

Martin

[cfpendock]

That is a superb image, Martin.  I like your choice of framing, and I think the use of a blue filter is absolutely stunning - it makes a big change from the more usual red.

Chris

[Sp@ce_d]

  you wide field boys are really making me feel inferior with my wee 285 chips!!

Love this.. it really gives you a sense of perspective. Like the tone too.. oh for a bigger chip

[jgs001]

Looks fab Martin.very well done and I rather like the bluish tint you've given it.

i have a plan for this area, should I get to see it, but most of that dust detail will be out of reach.

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[lensman57]

Simply stunning, I have for days prepared my WOZS 71 and a 0.6X FF/FR coupled to a modded 1100d to capture the same target in one go, and it just rains and rains and rains. One day....

Regards,

A.G

[rob0971]

Wow that is incredible!!!!!!!

[Martin-Devon]

Thanks again for comments. The layer mask technique for M42 is described nicely in a recent article by Olly in the January issue of Astronomy Now, and also in this excellent video tutorial by Anna Morris http://www.eprisephoto.com/layer-masks

Martin

[sologuitarist61]

Very nice indeed!

[swag72]

Holy Moly!!! That dust detail is just jumping out of the image at you, I think that your processing has really bought it out. The core's looking a little burnt out on my laptop, but that could be my screen as it does often clip the brighter area for me. An image that for me has bags to say - Well done!

[Mark72]

Fantastic perspective here Martin,  who cares about noise with such a stunning view.

Mark

[Pete Presland]

amazing image i can not believe this is the same area of sky i look at, so much "stuff" going on there

[Uranium235]

Cor blimey guvnr.... that one almost poked me eyes out! Interesting colour scheme too, ive never seen it like that.

[Spoon]

That's just incredible!

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[Martin-Devon]

Addtional thanks for feedback to Richard, Sara, Mark, 'Bunnygod1', Rob (Uranium235) and 'Spoon'.

I know what some of you mean in that my image is a little different to other wide-field posts of Orion. With deep sky imaging I'm not into research or anything like that, but like to achieve an image/ picture that technically & visually I'm happy with, at least for the moment. To me this is one of the attractions of deep sky imaging, with a heavy emphasis attached to the processing steps and range of palettes that can be applied, there's plenty of scope & opportunity here to experiment and add a more personal touch to the final image.

Martin

[swag72]

Nothing wrong with a pretty picture Martin

[JessicaFaye]

really gorgeous!   I can also see the 'long thin angel type figure!'