An error with Orion's Nebula

[ampleamp]

Inspired by Olly's chocolate M42 -

i thought i would see what I and Shropshire skies could produce, mainly because i have never pointed an imaging scope at M42. However i forgot about the overhead power cable that goes to a shed and my obs, which was in the way for the L frames leading to diffraction spikes on the brighter stars. Oh well, i noticed too late and haven't had chance to reshoot this yet.

This is my LRGB version as i kept the Ha out for now and i hope will act as a good practice run for when i get some decent L. I would really welcome and hints and tips and any errors i have made along the way,

thanks

[peter shah]

Beautiful shot, Nothing wrong with Shropshire Skies ...the diffraction spike doesn't detract from it at all hardly noticeable.....what kit have you used for this, exposure times etc.?

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

Very nice image indeed. I am also curious about the total integration time, equipment used, etc.

[assouptro]

Lovely image 

I too would love to know how you achieved this and how long it’s taken so far 

Bryan 

 

[ollypenrice]

The dust is particularly impressive with great depth, colour and structure.

You've not been as merciless as I was in holding down the brightest parts but that's a processing decision and some would consider your stretch more honest. I'll assume you used multiple exposure lengths to control the Trapezium? One thing to watch when doing this is the colour saturation in the brightest parts. The colour easily burns to white when things get very bright but, because the signal is so strong, you can really lean on the saturation without creating colour noise. I just think that you could pull the colour closer in to the Trapezium but, other than that, I would be inclined to sit back and enjoy it!

Olly

[ampleamp]

Well thanks very much! I was expecting some quite different comments.

This was taken with my twin FSQ85 kit, both reduced to 328mm/f3.87; one has an Atik 383 and Baader filters on-board (and the one that threw the spikes) and the other has a QSI683 with Astrodons.

L - 28x600s; 30x60s, 30x30s and 48x10s

R - 20x300s;I had to reject all the 180s subs as M42 dips in behind the roof of said shed

G and B - both ended up with 24x300s and 34x180s

In retrospect, 180s for RGB was plenty but i just defaulted to my normal 300s

[ampleamp]

2 hours ago, peter shah said:

Nothing wrong with Shropshire Skies

Agree, i am lucky in that i live near an army base so my southern and western skies and pretty dark 

46 minutes ago, ollypenrice said:

The dust is particularly impressive with great depth, colour and structure.

Thanks Olly, i saw your M42 and was very impressed. Like I said above, it was the inspiration for me having a go - i can see why people say it is a difficult target to image - i keep practising 

[Trevor N]

Lovely shot. Well done

[Guest]

It looks like you have some great data in this - my constructive criticism would that the nebula itself looks over exposed with the whites contrasting far too much with the reds etc.

Loads of interesting nebulosity around the borders too - great potential

David

 

 

[Ruud]

It is a magnificent image!

Checking out David's suggestion I downloaded the image and tweaked half of it for the white highlights (left). In the other half I only changed the levels a bit to ge the full gamut of brightness levels (right). I'm not one hundred percent sure if this is what he meant but I tried to balance the detail and value of the reds and whites. The result is in this zip: AmpleampTweaked.zip

[ampleamp]

Thanks for the suggestion David. Will look at that. 

Ruud. I am on my phone at moment and your file won’t download so will take a look tomorrow when in front of a proper screen. Thanks. 

[carastro]

What a beautiful image and well processed which only one constructive criticism, and that is the same as Olly, I think you have allowed M42 to get just a little bit too bright and thus have lost some of the detail.

Otherwise many congratulations.

Carole 

[ampleamp]

Ruud, thanks for your file - very innovative; and Carole, i do agree that i could have another go with the brightness, that is the general consensus - I would like to reshoot the L as the spikes do bother me and i would also try and get a lot more R 180 to balance the rgb subsmight take a few days ;-) 

[Petergoodhew]

Just saw this Alistair on a screen rather than a phone.  It really is quite exceptional, even with the diffraction spikes (Hubble gets those too!). Yes if you can pull down that brightness the colours will be even more glorious. Well done!