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M42 - my second guided image

MikeWilson

By MikeWilson
in Imaging - Deep Sky

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MikeWilson

MikeWilson

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Dear fellow astronomers,

Just as I wanted to pack away from taking my first guided image (http://stargazerslounge.com/imaging-deep-sky/117507-my-first-guided-image.html) Orion started to rise over the garden fence and so I thought I'd have a go at imaging M42.

I have never before seen M42 at the eyepiece and I've never imaged it before.

I took 9 x 2 minute guided exposures @ ISO 800. Applied some bias and historical darks (taken from 5 degrees C warmer) and processed in Photoshop.

I am totally pleased with the results. It was absolutely amazing to see this bright nebula on the camera and even better after a little processing.

post-18683-133877494629_thumb.jpg

Master TIF file: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/3717210/M42%20-%20The%20Orion%20Nebula%20%2821-10-2010%20-%209x2%20minutes%29%20-%20darks%20%26%20bias%20only.TIF

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ollypenrice

ollypenrice

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I remember exactly this experience myself, being blown away by the glories of M42 at the camera. I thought it was good in the 20 inch but sadly nothing can out-see the astronomical camera. Check out your layer masking skills in Ps and you can add some shorts. I have it written down somewhere if you don't find a better explanation.

Olly

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MikeWilson

MikeWilson

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Thank you everyone, I'm really pleased. I was amazed at how easy this object was to find and how visible it is even to the unassisted eyeball.

I like Olly's suggestion of taking some shorter exposures. I had perhaps gotten carried away with the 2 minute exposures and I ended up blowing out (clipping) the centre of the nebula. I have no idea how to combine two sets of exposures to get that effect so if you have a URL handy I'd really appreciate it please! Otherwise I'll ask my friend Google later tonight.

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MikeWilson

MikeWilson

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AndyUK - perfect example :) Yes, I'll bookmark that for later reading. I didn't take any short exposures but I'll give this target a fresh attempt next time I'm out. Generally the exposures are so short (it's quite bright) that I could collect all the lights easily within an hour and calibration frames not much longer.

I think processing will take up most of the time on this one!

Barkis - shucks, thanks! I'm far off POTW material with my incredibly limited expertise but given time, just maybe :) The stars will always be there, so there's a lifetime to get to know them.

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Tim

Tim

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Lol that does it Mike, you are totally hooked now :) M42 in a camera has a way of leaving a lasting impression, especially when you get a result like this.

Very very very tough to get any nice images of DSO's except clusters when there is a moon like last night, when you come back to this one in a darker sky you'll get even more. Maybe think about rotating the camera to frame both M42 and the running man nebula up above, it would make a perfect picture :)

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MikeWilson

MikeWilson

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M42 is beautiful and I am totally taken with it. Can't wait to see the rest of the region. Thanks for the tip about changing the framing - I will try to remember that for next time.

My wife and mother in law are impressed with the image too, which is outstanding. The best part about imaging has to be being able to actually share the results and for me, I appreciate the results of others' imaging even more so after fighting with the technology and freezing away in the garden until the early hours!

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SlipperySquid

SlipperySquid

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Hope you don't mind Mike but because M42 is to low for me at the moment as there are about 5000 houses in the way I thought I'd have a play about :)

I'll download your master tiff when I get home from work and have a play with that to!

Lovely image! I can't wait to have another go now that I have a guiding setup!

post-17960-133877494917_thumb.jpg

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MikeWilson

MikeWilson

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Hi SlipperySquid,

That's amazing, I really like what you've done with that image. Of course I don't mind - I'd actively encourage you to have a go with the TIF file!

How did you remove the vignetting? And pull the nebula out from the background so cleanly? Wow, I'm impressed.

Please don't say you used PixInsight. It's expensive! :)

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Uranium235

Uranium235

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Nice work on both M42 and your previous post of M45. Strangely enough, these are the first two targets I went for when I started imaging last year. Heh... I bet a year from now you will re-visit & and give em the beans (just like im doing). Shame i cant touch M42 yet, I have to wait until about xmas to get that becuase theres a massive tree in the way of it at the moment.

In regard to processing, have you used any flats yet? At getting a few of those would remove all vignetting and increase star detection. AI's virtual lightbox is great for this (or notepad), not as good as real flats.. but they do the job well enough.

You will need to update your darks too, put the camera in the fridge and get a good stock of darks of multiple lengths (2, 4, 5, 6, 10 & 15min). That should set you up for the next few months as its gonna be pretty cold out there from this week onwards. You might get a funny look off the wife though when she opens the fridge expecting to find the milk :)

If you want to try an alternative to DSS, Maxim DL rocks - especially for calibration of images (very fast). Sometimes it slips up on stacking, but theres nothing stopping you from taking the calibrated FITS files from Maxim and dropping them into DSS for stacking.

Maybe you can try upping the exposure time? 5min? Give it a buzz and see your star count rocket :)

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MikeWilson

MikeWilson

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Nice work on both M42 and your previous post of M45. Strangely enough, these are the first two targets I went for when I started imaging last year. Heh... I bet a year from now you will re-visit & and give em the beans (just like im doing). Shame i cant touch M42 yet, I have to wait until about xmas to get that becuase theres a massive tree in the way of it at the moment.

In regard to processing, have you used any flats yet? At getting a few of those would remove all vignetting and increase star detection. AI's virtual lightbox is great for this (or notepad), not as good as real flats.. but they do the job well enough.

I guess you can't make a hole in the tree so you've got a line of sight to M42? I had to move some of the strands of my Jasmin bush to get at it :D

Regarding lightboxes, I've seen some tutorials for making your own lightbox. I've ordered some LED lights from eBay and I'm going to pop over to B&Q in the morning to see if I can get the right material to build a light box.

Failing that, I'll take your notepad suggestion and use a laptop screen...

You will need to update your darks too, put the camera in the fridge and get a good stock of darks of multiple lengths (2, 4, 5, 6, 10 & 15min). That should set you up for the next few months as its gonna be pretty cold out there from this week onwards. You might get a funny look off the wife though when she opens the fridge expecting to find the milk :)

That's a pretty good idea! I'll take 20 subs of each of those (plus 30 second and 1 min, too). The camera is in the fridge, cooling down as I type :)

If you want to try an alternative to DSS, Maxim DL rocks - especially for calibration of images (very fast). Sometimes it slips up on stacking, but theres nothing stopping you from taking the calibrated FITS files from Maxim and dropping them into DSS for stacking.

Wow, Maxim really looks quite the one-stop-shop. I'll take a look at it. For now, I'm generally happy with DSS even though it's rather slow to stack images on my PC (Intel Core i7 860, 8gb RAM, dual RAID 1 SSD's).

Maybe you can try upping the exposure time? 5min? Give it a buzz and see your star count rocket :)

I've just been given a helpful workflow from Olly and a link from AndyUK which both effectively describe a manual HDR process for the brighter objects. I'm really buzzed to try it out now next time M42 rises over the fence & jasmine bush.

Excellent first effort. I really cant wait to give this ago, both viewing in the scope and imaging!

Thanks! And I'm looking forward to seeing your efforts, too :)

Nice work Mike, M42 is mind blowing first time, I can't wait to have my 2nd go at it.

You and me both :p M42 really is quite incredible first time as I honestly didn't expect to see it on a 15 second exposure (which I took just to get the framing right). But there it was - unmistakably there and bright as you like! I may even try it first with eyepieces to get a good look around. I'm assuming that it should be visible via the eyepiece, since it's visible to the naked eye.

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saturn5

saturn5

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Hope you don't mind Mike but because M42 is to low for me at the moment as there are about 5000 houses in the way I thought I'd have a play about :)

I'll download your master tiff when I get home from work and have a play with that to!

Lovely image! I can't wait to have another go now that I have a guiding setup!

You've clipped the black point by more than just a little in the second image,a lot of faint detail has been lost.

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