Where is that "Trapezium" thing? :P

[Macavity]

When I started out in Astronomy, I was intrigued by the idea of...
"The Trapezium" (In Orion)! I couldn't see it "properly" with Dad's
binoculars and the images in books left me none the wiser. lol 😛



Of course, eventually, I had a telescope that DID reveal it! 😎
But then I wondered if I could show (via Video Astronomy)
the "Trapezium in context". I found that I could - with three
short/med/long exposures and combining them via masking:



Of course 8-bits / large pixels rarely SHINES re. Nebulae! 🙄
(Aside: I used an automatic masking GIMP macro too. lol)

If there any GREAT imagers out there, who "do requests":
I'd love to see your 32-bit colour versions of the above... 🥳

Edited September 21, 2020 by Macavity

[vlaiv]

I'm certainly not a great imager, and this is not per request as it was one of my first images. It also does not render Trapezium as nicely as your multi layer approach, but here it goes:

Just a tad over blow core and stars, but you can still make out four main stars of the Trapezium. And yes, it's not 32bit either

[Macavity]

Too kind Vlaiv! No "rocket science" on my part. The technique intruigued!
GIMP is rather different to e.g. Photoshop. But the link to the macro is:
http://tir.astro.utoledo.edu/jdsmith/code/exposure_blend.php
I think I have even got it to work by using a *single* exposure by adjusting
the brightness/contrast to give three frames! Maybe if you have sufficient
bits to play with... Though I very much doubt that is "notably scientific"! lol
M42 does seem to be a good candidate to try this though? 🥳

I should probably have a go myself of course. But maybe with better data.

Edited September 21, 2020 by Macavity

[wimvb]

My version.

[Macavity]

9 hours ago, wimvb said:

My version.

Perhaps intended for another thread? 🙂

But anyway... Adjusted the levels of Vlaiv's original image to give pseudo(!)
short, medium, long exposure inages. And here's the masking result:


 

Clearly (presumably!) it would work rather better with REAL short/medium/long exposures! 😏

Edited September 22, 2020 by Macavity