What exposure time and iso should I have for the Orion Nebula?

[matt_baker]

I was wondering what exposure time and iso I should use to capture the Orion Nebula. I have a Celestron 130SLT and a Nikon D3200. I know that this isn't necessarily the best, especially for astrophotography but I did give it a go before and I want to try and improve on the results that i have right now. Here's an example:

Thanks,

Matt

P.S I took 19 light frames and stacked them on autostakkert and did some things in photoshop

[LukeSkywatcher]

Hi Matt

I am not really into AP but i have learned quite a bit over the yrs while here on SGL. There is no single answer to your question. Many factors come into play. The biggest factor is probably light pollution in your location. This is a very localized issue and you really have to play around with exposure times and ISO on your camera until you arrive at a happy medium. 

Your image is far from the worst i have seen. 

If you post this thread in the imaging section, you will get lots of great advice.

 

Edited October 27, 2017 by LukeSkywatcher

[knobby]

Again, im no expert but I believe for Orion it's best to do some short exposure to get the central stars and some longer exposure for the nebula, then combine in software like an HDR shot.

[ollypenrice]

This is one of the very few targets which cannot be imaged well in a single exposure time. Personally, I blended sets of exposures of 11 seconds, 50 seconds and 10 minutes (15 would have been better.) Each setup will vary so you do need to experiment.

Once it comes to combining them, some thought is needed. I prefer to do this in Photoshop using this tutorial. http://www.astropix.com/html/j_digit/laymask.html

Jerry has updated his website since I first learned the layer masking technique from him but the basics remain unchanged. In the latest version he blends two exposure lengths but I would still shoot three, I think, with my setups.

Olly

 

[happy-kat]

Have a read of the No eq dso Challenge thread. I think you need to try to capture at least 100 images, let your mount drive exposure length say something like 20 seconds and then let that drive your iso choice start at iso800 aim for the histogram peak to be clear of the left edge. Also take say 20 images of 5 seconds. Don't forget bias and flat frames.

[edjrgibbs]

Basically you'll be restricted in exposure length by your mount as its not an EQ mount. Simply put though, sake as many as you can as long as you can and stack them in Deep Sky Stacker. 

[Luna-tic]

18 hours ago, matt_baker said:

I was wondering what exposure time and iso I should use to capture the Orion Nebula. I have a Celestron 130SLT and a Nikon D3200. I know that this isn't necessarily the best, especially for astrophotography but I did give it a go before and I want to try and improve on the results that i have right now. Here's an example:

Thanks,

Matt

P.S I took 19 light frames and stacked them on autostakkert and did some things in photoshop

Nice picture. Based on what I did tonight, I'd agree with ollypenrice. The heart of the nebula seems to capture well with relatively short exposures, but the outlying parts need longer exposure to bring out the details. I was out tonight, just got in two hours ago (5am EDT)and played with my setup to see what I could get on several objects, primarily M42. I bracketed ISO and shutter speeds, trying to see what the best combination was. High ISO (12,800) tends to wash out the heart and induces a lot of noise at 32 seconds. I kept dropping ISO and kept exposure times around 25-30 seconds, finally getting to ISO 1600 at 32 seconds. 

1st image below is through a Edge HD 8"  on AVX mount with a D3400 at prime, single exposure 32 seconds @ISO 12800. 2nd image is single exposure 32 seconds @ ISO 1600. I shot both RAW and jpeg, these are the jpeg images. They've been cleaned up a little with contrast and brightness adjustments, but not much, and the red has been slightly enhanced.  I haven't started stacking images yet, but given my results tonight, am going to start soon. These are first attempts at DSO AP.

Edited October 28, 2017 by Luna-tic

[happy-kat]

They're great. If the stars are elongating then I think the nebula will be smearing, you might want to nudge your exposure length shorter and trade off volume of subs against length of subs.

Edited October 28, 2017 by happy-kat

[happy-kat]

This is the No EQ DSO challenge thread.

Link here

[Luna-tic]

2 hours ago, happy-kat said:

This is the No EQ DSO challenge thread.

Link here

Interesting, but what's your point? I'm using an EQ mount.  Just haven't started stacking and processing yet.

[happy-kat]

Ah I hadn't realised that, sorry to have assumed, your flavor OTA was actually on an EQ mount. The OP is using an altaz and the link is a read for them and I hadn't found the thread when I'd mentioned it previously.

 

Edited October 28, 2017 by happy-kat

[newbie alert]

Orion is pretty bright..you can get a decent image from very short exposures..its said that is one of the easiest and difficult nebula to image because of its extremes of the dynamic range..easy to over expose the core (trapezium) but long exposures are better for the outer dust.... hense why the experienced use different subs lengths  and merge them together..

Whatever you do you will get a image..and when the first one pops up on the back of the camera I bet you have a grin from ear to ear..

[Luna-tic]

On ‎10‎/‎28‎/‎2017 at 14:03, newbie alert said:

Orion is pretty bright..you can get a decent image from very short exposures..its said that is one of the easiest and difficult nebula to image because of its extremes of the dynamic range..easy to over expose the core (trapezium) but long exposures are better for the outer dust.... hense why the experienced use different subs lengths  and merge them together..

Whatever you do you will get a image..and when the first one pops up on the back of the camera I bet you have a grin from ear to ear..

Exactly. Because it's bright, it's one of the first DSO's people try, and why I also tried it. Stacking and processing is the only way to get even lighting and a full image of it; I knew that going in, but I'm taking 'baby steps', looking at exposure times and ISO to gauge tracking accuracy without guiding (I'm using a long F/L scope). I took over a dozen images of M42 at exposures from 20-40 seconds and ISO from 1600-12800. It's easy to see in the combinations where tracking becomes an issue and noise starts becoming prominent and where lighting is enhanced or inhibited.  I've also played with less-bright objects like M1, M31, M13 and some of the open clusters. Once I get a feel for this, I plan to start stacking images and playing with them in Registax and Lightroom, using filters, etc to improve coloration and visibility.

Now that I've photographed a rather large-field DSO, I know what to expect with FOV and my longer F/L and a DSLR's sensor size. Hopefully, Celestron won't take the remainder of my lifespan to get their reducer availability issue worked out. Then I can open up my field a bit. Fastar and f/2 is further down the road.

As for the grin, I still have it, several days later. This is FUN.

 

Edited October 29, 2017 by Luna-tic

[newbie alert]

On 29/10/2017 at 18:13, Luna-tic said:

I plan to start stacking images and playing with them in Registax and Lightroom, using filters, etc to improve coloration and visibility.

I think deep sky stacker is a better program for stacking of two rather than registax..and probably easier 

Edited October 30, 2017 by newbie alert
Phone thinks it knows best

[ceroha3]

I just started getting into astro, as well as photography in general last year. I just bought a Rokinon 650-1300mm for my Nikon d3200 on an old Tele-Pod telescope mount. An attempted shooting Orion nebula, but it seemed with a 2 second exposure I would get trailing. I'm not even 100% sure I was on the nebula, any advice on maybe the trailing issue I'm having? I know to aim at the tip of Orions sword, but with out a EQ mount an such a long lens I'm not really sure if I'm correct on where I aimed at.

[geordie85]

On 03/10/2019 at 22:35, ceroha3 said:

I just started getting into astro, as well as photography in general last year. I just bought a Rokinon 650-1300mm for my Nikon d3200 on an old Tele-Pod telescope mount. An attempted shooting Orion nebula, but it seemed with a 2 second exposure I would get trailing. I'm not even 100% sure I was on the nebula, any advice on maybe the trailing issue I'm having? I know to aim at the tip of Orions sword, but with out a EQ mount an such a long lens I'm not really sure if I'm correct on where I aimed at.

With such a long focal length and a static tripod you're always going to have trailing, no matter how short the exposure. 

[happy-kat]

With a sensor like in the nikon d3200 it would be 400/the lens focal length for a guide on exposure length before star trails.

400/650 for example is less than one second so your two seconds would have shown star trails.

You could get a red dot finder to fit in the camera flash hot shoe, this would help with aiming.

[Nigella Bryant]

My first digital image using my telescope. Not aligned properly but it was a combination of 30sec iso 1600 subs and 5sec subs. Used a modded Canon 1000d. 

[Anakin Skywalker]

Hey guys!,

I'm pretty sure that anyone who has a decent telescope and a good camera will not be disappointed by M42(also BTW imma newbie and hey everybody!). I have a Celestron Nexstar 6SE Schmidt Cassegrain telescope and a a Nikon D3500 DSLR which i bought for astrophotography. I took some pics last nigjht of the orion nebula using an ISO setting of 12800 and an exposure of time of 1.6". I think it came out pretty great even tho its kinda pixellated.  i tweaked it a bit using Registax 6 but honestly im still tryin to figure it out! Any advice of what are the best setting for the camera for photographing M42 and how to process the images using Registax 6 would be really appreciated!Processed Orion nebula3.bmp

May the force be with you!😀Processed Orion nebula3.bmp

[Anakin Skywalker]

10 hours ago, Anakin Skywalker said:

Hey guys!,

I'm pretty sure that anyone who has a decent telescope and a good camera will not be disappointed by M42(also BTW imma newbie and hey everybody!). I have a Celestron Nexstar 6SE Schmidt Cassegrain telescope and a a Nikon D3500 DSLR which i bought for astrophotography. I took some pics last nigjht of the orion nebula using an ISO setting of 12800 and an exposure of time of 1.6". I think it came out pretty great even tho its kinda pixellated.  i tweaked it a bit using Registax 6 but honestly im still tryin to figure it out! Any advice of what are the best setting for the camera for photographing M42 and how to process the images using Registax 6 would be really appreciated!Processed Orion nebula3.bmp

May the force be with you!😀Processed Orion nebula3.bmp

M42 GREAT ORION NEBULA

Telescope - Celestron Nexstar 6SE

Camera - Nikon D3500

ISO - 12800

Exposure time - 1.6"

Edited January 22, 2020 by Anakin Skywalker

[bottletopburly]

2 hours ago, Anakin Skywalker said:

ISO setting of 12800 and an exposure of time of 1.6"

For the Nikon D5300 the recommended iso is 200  for best dynamic range it is an iso invariant camera using a higher iso only introduces  noise , processing will uncover the hidden beauty of your image , I’m using D5300 👍 not sure on exposure as I’m guiding on an Equatorial others may give better advice if you say what mount your using and if your guiding or not I’m assuming you aren’t , also calibration frames will help too darks and flats .

Edited January 22, 2020 by bottletopburly

[Anakin Skywalker]

8 hours ago, bottletopburly said:

For the Nikon D5300 the recommended iso is 200  for best dynamic range it is an iso invariant camera using a higher iso only introduces  noise , processing will uncover the hidden beauty of your image , I’m using D5300 👍 not sure on exposure as I’m guiding on an Equatorial others may give better advice if you say what mount your using and if your guiding or not I’m assuming you aren’t , also calibration frames will help too darks and flats .

Thanks. I've been trying to find a way to reduce noise without having to over expose the images. BTW i use the computerized Goto mount which came with the telescope. Sometimes it gets really hard to get it to accurately track an object but i manage okay i guess. That's why some stars are showing trails here and there😁. I took several images using different settings but  still dont know which ones are the best for my Nikon D3500. Anyway thanks 4 the advice!

May the force be with you!

DSC_0231.bmp

This pic was one of many i tried using different settings

 

Edited January 22, 2020 by Anakin Skywalker

[happy-kat]

Hi, if you use jpg or say png the image would show in your post.

Edited January 22, 2020 by happy-kat

[Anakin Skywalker]

Ya i noticed that!🤣. Will do thanks!

May the force be with you

Edited January 23, 2020 by Anakin Skywalker

[orion25]

I've been taking one off shots of M42 with my Orion SkyMax 127mm since 2015, first with the classic Nikon D50 and as of 2018 the Nikon D3200. I found that I could get a pretty good image at ISO1600 at 20 seconds. But that is what works well with my scope. I suggest, like others here, to experiment to see what settings work best for your scope. I don't spend much time stacking and like the spontaneity of one-offs, but undoubtedly stacking will add more depth, color and detail. Here is one of my favorite images of M42 from 2019 with minor tweaking of levels in Photoshop, no stacking:

Regards,

Reggie  

 

Edited January 23, 2020 by orion25