First view of M42

[RSM]

After countless cloudy and rainy nights, got the chance to take some images over the last two nights. With the moon being two thirds full, I took the chance to take a few shots of the moon at a different phase, great how each night a different set of craters comes into view. After spending a bit of time on the Pleiades last night, I was thinking of packing up as the forecast cloud appeared to be rolling in. I set the camera to take the darks and bias frames and came inside for a cuppa whilst it snapped away. Half an hour later I went out to pack up and the sky was wonderful. The moon was now low in the sky and orion was rising from the South-East. M42 has been on my shopping list ever since getting my scope two months ago and I had the perfect chance to get some first images. In all I took around 60 subs at 30 second exposures (ISO 1600) and chose the best 30 from those to process. The image below is the result of my first efforts, stacked and processed in PI with Darks, Bias and Flats.

I'd like to be able to get a bit more out of the core of the nebula but when I adjust the curves to take the brightest light elements down, I seem to lose the core altogether. I've thought about whether I should take some different length exposures to try and somehow join them together, use the longer length exposures for the dimmer parts of the nebula and shorter exposures for the centre. Does anyone have experience of blending images in this way. Would you blend before, during or after processing???

I also took a stack of subs of the same target at 45 seconds. Will work on those in the coming days to see what additional detail I can find. 

Two months in to astro-imaging and I'm loving it!! :-)

Thanks for reading, Richard.

[knobby]

Nice job Richard, I believe the experts use layer masks for the different exposures , sounds pretty complex, must read up one day.

[Knight of Clear Skies]

Nice image, especially given the short run of data. I used this tutorial to fix the core on my Orion.

A separate set of exposures for the core shouldn't be required in this case, the trick is to perform a separate stretch of the stack for the core and blend that in. 30 seconds at f5/ISO 1600 should be OK for the core I think.

[hjw]

Hi Richard,

I am really impressed with your efforts. First the great shots of Andromeda and now Orion. Considering that you are doing it for only two month... Really great progress! I actually don't mind the trapezium being bright. After all it is the closest active star nursery to us. It is a hellish place and the bright colors just highlight the high energy environment.

Clear skies!

HJ

[Knight of Clear Skies]

I am really impressed with your efforts. First the great shots of Andromeda and now Orion. Considering that you are doing it for only two month... Really great progress!

Agreed, that's a fine effort by any measure, but especially for an early image. The detail in the dust around the base catches my eye.

[RSM]

Thanks very much. I messed around with my DSLR and a 250mm lens for a few months, taking some images of constellations such as The Plough and even a very dodgy Jupiter and a few of its moons and stacking them with DSS with darks and bias, but no post processing. Also managed a few nice moon pics with the same set up using registax, so I had some of the basics. What amazes me is what is up there beyond the light pollution which the bigger aperture and light capturing capability of a larger scope like my 200PDS vs a 250mm canon lens shows. My progress is really thanks to the friendly nature of those on the forum who are willing to take time to share their experiences coupled with my hunger to learn. Richard.

[RSM]

Nice image, especially given the short run of data. I used this tutorial to fix the core on my Orion.

A separate set of exposures for the core shouldn't be required in this case, the trick is to perform a separate stretch of the stack for the core and blend that in. 30 seconds at f5/ISO 1600 should be OK for the core I think.

Thanks, I'll be sure to take a look. Richard.

[Astrosurf]

That's excellent for such short subs! When I processed in Deep Sly Stacker, I used the unstretched TIFF for the core!    The image is always dark straight from DSS so the trapezium was perfect.

Alexxx

[StargeezerTim]

Really well done... lovely image...

[seo]

Nice work Richard. Well done !