first attempts at M42

[hairymunky]

Had a go at M42 last week, with a 70-300mm zoom (at 300mm). Set the ISO

to 1600, and exposure of 2 secs, as any more gave quite bad trails (should

really invest in a driven mount at some point, hint hint mrs munky!!!)

Also set the noise-reduction function on the canon, to reduce any

noise. Took a few shots, and tried to stack them in registax, but it

kept bailing with an "list out of bounds error" so I gave up (really need to

sit down and figure out how to use that program)

So after a few shots, and a few hours trying to stack, this is what I came

up with (just one of the single shots I took)

Now I need to learn about "post-processing" to try and get more detail out

of the image

[Grant]

Nice widefield shot! Congratulations

For deepsky stuff like this, you are probably better off stacking in deepskystacker: http://deepskystacker.free.fr/ I find it alot easier to use than registax.

Cheers,

Grant

[Trevor]

Hi Hairymunkey

At the top of registax you will se an alignment box size, try clicking on the box size 32 that might help.

Trev.

[lunator]

HM

You have caught some of the nebulosity around the strs so for 2 seconds thats good

Registax doesn't really like a few large images. It preferes lots of smaller frames.

Cheers

Ian

[Cloudwatcher]

I thought that an excellent single frame wide field image and couldn't resist trying to pull out a bit more detail.

Unfortunately,M42 sits in the noisiest part of the frame and it's a bit difficult to know what is nebulosity and and what isn't. Anyway, this is what I have come up with.

Cheers

CW

(click as usual)

[barkis]

I would call that nothing short of miraculous CW. bit of magic wand stuff.

I notice you ration your time on here now.

SHMBO has not put shackles on I hope. :D

Ron.

[hairymunky]

I thought that an excellent single frame wide field image and couldn't resist trying to pull out a bit more detail.

Unfortunately,M42 sits in the noisiest part of the frame and it's a bit difficult to know what is nebulosity and and what isn't. Anyway, this is what I have come up with.

Cheers

CW

Wow!!! Thanks CW, I never knew all that detail was in that one shot. How did

you tweak the image? (if you don't mind me asking). I've got all these programs

on my machine (ie CS3, registax, dss etc), and to be honest, don't really have the foggiest idea how to

use them...

Tried to stack the original 12 raw images last night in dss, but the final image

looks more like some strange maze puzzle, rather than any of the images :?

Back to the constructions instructions....

[Greg]

Nicely done...Nicely done indeed... :I'd be pleased.. :hello1:

[Cloudwatcher]

HI, HM

That was a 'hand job' if you'll pardon the expression. :shock: The image was inverted and the burn tool in Photoshop was passed over the main area in midtone setting to bring out more detail. Unfortunately for some reason the 'wings' did not show up,don't know why. The brush tool was used in luminescence mode to brighten the stars a bit and the background darkened in Levels. A bit of blur and thats about it really.

A pleasent exercise but the result is a little disappointing.

Thanks for letting me play.

Cheers

CW