M42 Orions Nebula - Would welcome any help

[swag72]

Thanks to all the folks on here, and their help and patience, I have produced my second ever image using my 5D2, Skywatcher ED120 scope and HEQ5 mount. I would really welcome any criticism you have so that I can work on improving my imaging. It's such incredibly early days for me and already I love it!!

Orions nebula - M42 by swag72, on Flickr

This is a mixture of subs ranging from 60s to 5s and including some darks too.

[swag72]

Silence speaks many words!! What is wrong with this pic? Please be harsh and honest, it's the only way to learn.

[Dave]

You've really captured the detail in the faint and bright parts of the nebula.

If this is your second ever image, you've done a great job.

Keep it going.

Dave

[brantuk]

It's a nice picture swag. You've got a lot of clarity there and the trapezium and running man are crystal. Unfortunately I'm **** at processing so can't advise on that. Looks a tad blue - did you use any filters? Someone may be able to suggest ways of adding more colour. But a good snap far as I'm concerned

[SlipperySquid]

I'd suggest leaving the diffraction spikes off..I know they can look pretty but I think they cover up to much of the running man and look out of place on the left hand side of the image!

Matt.

[steppenwolf]

For only your second image, this is very good - there is some good detail, a good balance between the Trapezium region and the outer filamentary areas and some realistic colour.

There is a case for the judicious use of artificial diffraction spikes, I have used them myself on a couple of suitable images but here they are out of place and inconsistent. I would concentrate on extracting more of the natural image from your data for now and you have made a good start.

[Trevorw]

adjust the background to remove the gradient

lessen the green

remove the spikes

also make sure you are not clipping the levels

[swag72]

Thanks for all your help - I think I will go back and look at this one and see what more I can get out of it - Watch this space!!! Couldn't have done it without you guys. Also, keeping an eye out for some cloudless skies so that I can add more subs!! This is a little addictive isn't it?!!

[Catanonia]

mmm, nice effort, you have the detail but seem to have gone over board with the processing.

It looks like it has been sharpened way too much. Try playing with levels and curves and leave the star spikes out.

[swag72]

I think you are right Catanonia - I can only liken this to my first non astro pics - I thought they were great, but in truth, they were probably out of focus and badly exposed. Like this, I have gone OTT with the processing and sharpening as it all newly discovered and each movement of the mouse in CS3 bought out another 'Wow, look at this!!' I can appreciate that to you guys this looks over processed, but to non astro folks, they think it's great!!

Definately going to play with this again.