Orion Nebula WIP

[tooth_dr]

I wnet to visit another club member last night helping him set up APT and PHD.  It was bucketing with him, but as I got closer to home (65 miles journey) it was starting to clear.  When I pulled up at home it was crystal clear and I could not resist the draw of Orion. I got set up, now around 11:30pm, and was imaging within a few minutes, however clouds came in about 40 minutes later, so all I managed was 8 x 5mins subs.  I've processed what I have so far, and I think I can just make out some of this background murk, which is very pleasing.  I plan to add a range of exposures to this, to create a nice image which shows the trapezium.  Thanks for looking, I'm glad I put in the effort last night despite being tired.

 

 

[Allinthehead]

That's a fine start. Imagine what many hours would do. I had a similar evening to you in Cork. Nice surprise 

[Filroden]

36 minutes ago, tooth_dr said:

I'm glad I put in the effort last night despite being tired.

Me too. That's a nice start. Add some more hours (plus a few minutes of very short subs for the core) and it will be a great image. Shame about the rain for the other guy

[Nigel G]

A beauty  

[Xiga]

Looking good Adam. If this is the result after only 40 mins then more data should look even more awesome :-)

Orion is also on my list this winter. The only time i've imaged it to date was a quick go last winter, on a night when just about everything went wrong! lol. But i do recall that i managed 66 mins (11 * 6 min subs with an IDAS-D1 filter), and that for the core all it took was 10 * 30 sec subs (even with the D1!). It is so bright that the signal will be high no matter what, so you won't need that many, and you can probably get away without even using any calibration frames either, given you will only be using a tiny portion from the centre of the frames. 

Here is a crop of what the 10 * 30 sec stack looked like (before any stretching). Of course with your camera, skies, and filter setup YMMV:

 

[tooth_dr]

Cheers all. Last night was frustrating. Twice I set up, and twice it started snowing so I had to quickly abandon.  As I was going to bed around 11:30 it was so clear again but I couldn’t risk it so didn’t set up again.