Another Great Orion Nebula using a Star Adventurer & a William Optics Zenithstar 61.

[Ryan_86]

Hi all, this is my attempt of M42 & The Running Man Nebula. This is my 1st attempt at M42, and 1st light with the Zenithstar. It consists of 28 90sec lights, 20 darks, 53 bias & 63 flats. This was so near the horizon, I never expected it to turn out quite like this. I hope you all like it. Kit:Zenithstar61, SA unguided, Canon600D (unmodded) & a lot of ambition. Taken from the Brecon Beacons, Wales.
Thanks

Ryan

[JeremyS]

Lovely image Ryan!

[Ryan_86]

Thank you ever so much Jeremy.

Ryan

[Buzzard75]

Very nice! gives me a lot of hope for the new imaging setup I'm putting together.

[Ryan_86]

Thank you buzzard?? To be fair I rushed PA as Orion was getting lower and lower. It could of been more accurate, however am happy with my result. This was my 1st decent opportunity to test the SA along with the Z61 & was praying to have a crack at M42 before leaving our skies. 

I have a stand alone guiding system to help imprrove reliability, maybe this month I can get to grips with it.

What's your set up pal?

[Buzzard75]

1 hour ago, Ryan_86 said:

What's your set up pal?

I just got my iOptron Skyguider Pro, VERY similar to your SA, in the mail today and I'm getting my "new to me" Canon 750D on Friday. I have a couple of kit lenses that I'll be using with it for a little while, but I plan to upgrade to a WO 61, 71, or 73 or something similarly small and light weight in a couple years after I've learned the basics of astrophotography and editing. So yeah, seeing images like yours come from a setup similar to what I have in mind is very encouraging for me.

[MikeODay]

Nice image Ryan and a fantastic 1st attempt.  If I might make one suggestion, you could look again at the colour balance; on my screen it looks a little green and maybe also a tiny bit blue. 

[Ryan_86]

Hi Mike, thanks & I welcome your input??If I adjust and repost,  would you mind taking a look and telling me what you think?

Thanks Ryan

[8472]

Very nice. What's your weapon of choice for post processing? I see you like the odd diffraction spike or two.

[swag72]

Nice one!! Well done on your first M42 ? 

[MikeODay]

1 hour ago, Ryan_86 said:

Hi Mike, thanks & I welcome your input??If I adjust and repost,  would you mind taking a look and telling me what you think?

Thanks Ryan

WIll do, I look foward to seeing it.

[happy-kat]

Nice clear running man.

[Ryan_86]

Thank you all. 

I used DSS, Photoshop CS3 and Noel's Astronomy Action tool set, hence the diffraction spikes??

[Ryan_86]

Mike, how does this look to you. I managed to tighten the blue and green channels slightly, then I synthesized the green channel via Astronomy tools action set.

I looks a little grainy "jpeg" but the TIff is much smoother.

Thanks

Ryan

[MikeODay]

Hey Ryan, I much prefer the background now.  To me the nebula itself looks a little blue and overall the image could do with more red.  But really it is up to you, my eyes, screen and taste are bound to be different to yours.  What I do is look up a selection of images I like using google and try to see how an object "should look" or, more often, choose a look I like and then use that as my guide.  The 'normal look' of course is quite different if you are using an unmodified DSLR ( like yours ) rather than a camera that is quite sensitive to the far red end of the spectrum.  Mine is unmodified so I don't record as much Ha and so my images of Ha rich nebula tend to come out more magenta than red.

Do you have much light pollution where you take your photos?  If not then you can pretty much rely on the camera white balance ( daylight setting ) to get it pretty much right - at least as a good starting point.  

Anyway, I would not want any of this to make you think that I don't like your image ( original or modified ) - It is a lovely shot and a great first go 

[MarsG76]

Excellent result Ryan... 

[Ryan_86]

Thanks Whit Dwarf

Mike, my dark site has very little light pollution. Bortle 2ish (amazing to be fair). However I did have my white balance set at tungsten. Funnily enough my camera was packed up ready to be sent for an astro mod. Much to my surprise, the forecast looked good so I unboxed it to capture this. Its currently having a Baader filter fitted. I reduced the green channel and adjusted the blue and red slightly. I am happy with it now so thanks for your input  I now realise how green the image was. What do you think of this one?

Does anybody have experience in printing their images. I would love to get this printed as its my first decent attempt. I have read that Kodak metallic prints are a good choice. If anybody can help with this I would love to hear from you. I have ordered a print from DSCL.co.uk who offer such prints. Fingers crossed hey.

 

Thanks again all

Ryan

[MikeODay]

That is looking very nice Ryan.  Good job.