M42 The Great Orion Nebula and M43 De MNairan's Nebula Mod 350D CPC800 @ F10

[Psychobilly]

Last night was my first attempt at Prime Focus Imaging using the Moded 350D on the CPC800XLT whilst autoguiding using a DSI IIC on the Skywatcher Equinoxe-66 Pro @ f6....

The "results" from various targets are in another thread...

Here's my first attempt at processing the "Prime Focus" M42/M43 data taken with the moded 350D on the CPC800XLT @ F10

6x5s + 4x15s + 4x30s + 3x60s + 4x120s + 4x240s @ ISO800

Each subset stacked in DSS asinh Stretched...

The Resulting Images Manually Aligned and Stacked in CS3 in 5-15-30-60-120-240s order top to bottom....

Top 5 Layyers set to 20% Opacity...

Image Flattened and then Hue and Saturation, Level, Curves etc...

Image Resized in 10% steps to final size..

Frame and annotation added....

Dropped to 8Bit and Jpeged....

Hope you like it....Apologies for "Portrait" It doesn't look right in "landscape"

(click to enlarge)

Billy...

[Steve Kent]

That's a great image Billy and I really like the processing notes they're really helpful to those of us new to astrophotography.

[beamish]

Blimey, no stopping you Billy. Great capture !

Karlo

[Psychobilly]

Hi Steve,

Thanks for the comments about the image and the processing notes...

This method is something that I have been playign with I am not sure its the right way to do it but I quite like the results - I am sure there are better ways of stacking the various "exposures" and now I have the data I can start to look at them.

Thanks Karlo...

There are a few things I am planning to do differently to improve the guiding for tomorrows attempt - im planing on barlowign up the "66" and Focal Reducing the 8" to improve the focal length ratio and at teh same time get a slightly wide FOV will just have to watch as the camera won't swing through the forks with the SCT Filter, FR and Extension tubes on though...

Billy...

[asteria]

Hi Billy - this is a great image - I really like the work you are doing. Keep it up as the images are awesome.

Thanks.

Ed

[brendant]

Wow Billy, you have really nailed the Trapezium, not often you get to ses it, lovely filamental detail visible in M42, Superb .

Brendan

[Psychobilly]

Thanks Brendan.

Balancing the Trapezium Reigon with the outer filaments was what I was hoping to achieve with the "whacky" processing...

Billy...

[Vega]

oooh, lovely smooth image. Late night for you then Billy?

I'm leaving orion Neb for the winter.. Respect to all you hardcore, nocternal types , I need at least 4 hours sleep a night LOL

Matt

[Psychobilly]

Thanks Matt - I'm a real sucker for the early season stuff always try and get images a few months before optimum - gives me time to think out the stratergy for when the targets optimal

Billy...

[glennbech]

Looking forward to seeing the result!

[philj]

Thats nice Billy. Great detail and processing especially getting the trapezium to stand out like that

Phil

[Jeff RV]

You just have to admire M42/M43 fantastic stuff!! Nice one Billy.

Jeff.

[jonbarr87]

Beautiful capture. Thanks for including the notes:)

[trevboyd]

Great shot, Billy! I can't wait to see what you come up with once it's better placed earlier in the night!

Trev

[ncjunk]

Great Pic! and the processing details are great..

Neil C

[Sam]

Awesome shot Billy! well done - you've had a real marathon effort there!

[Psychobilly]

Thanks guys:)

Transparency is poor tonight and I have made some changes to the setup I have a x2 barlow on the "66" and f6.3 reducer on the 8" as well as tweakign the collimation onthe 8"...

Hopefully it will be clear enough at around 5am to get another run of data ...

Billy...

[jgs001]

Awesome image Billy Just one question, when do you sleep and how fo you get away with so little ??

[Psychobilly]

Awesome image Billy Just one question, when do you sleep and how fo you get away with so little ??

Sleep? .... I dunno.... I must store it up during the week

Thanks for the comments guys..

Billy...

[Psychobilly]

Finally got a few hours "deep" sleep sunday night but I still had a 4am alarm for another go at either NGC2024/B33 or M42/M43 but clouded out

Oh well plenty of data to work on over the next few damp nights...

Billy...

[steppenwolf]

You've got an excellent balance between the Trapezium area and the lighter filamentary regions - a very accomplished image!

[markcol]

Very nice Billy!

Mark

[Psychobilly]

Thanks Steve...

Remember that discussion on the whacky stacking from my early days in "another place" well I used the same method again....I think it works

Billy...

[M. Al-Kubaisi]

Dear Billy

This a great photo

i hope to get one like this

mine was only single raw photo by 30s

well done billy

keept up

[MartinB]

That's a wonderful result Billy. Your layering technique has worked really well with a beautifully processed core