Yes, it's another M42!

[dlp]

Seems half of SGL have been posting images of M42 this week, so here's my attempt from Sunday night. This is 20 lights @20s/ISO800, with darks & bias applied. I did take 30s, 60s & a couple at 2mins but quite honestly they didn't seem that different so I stuck with the 20s stack.

Processed in PixInsight, very little done in PS - mainly to adjust for web display and the dreaded jpeg. Think I was a little hasty in framing as a clockwise rotation would have given me more.

Comments on improvement most welcome, as are brickbats if you think it's bad!

David

[Taff]

Hi David' it is always nice to see M42. That's a nice capture with you.Mark

[ashworthacca]

I like this very much, the subtle processing has worked really well imo.

Thanks for sharing.

[ollypenrice]

Nobody is going to call that bad! Your Trapezium region is an object lesson. Smooth image and subtle, as stated above. I really do think the longer subs might allow you to get more of the outer regions if stretched.

Olly

[dlp]

Thanks guys, and praise indeed Olly; that 1 comment is worth the 4hrs odd processing!

Maybe I will have a go at the longer subs tomorrow, OD'd a bit on PI today...

David

[ollypenrice]

4 hours? If you knew how long I spend on one star...

Good luck, it is worth plenty of effort, this one.

Olly

[swag72]

That is a really nice M42. I'm impressed at that being 20s subs - As a newbie I always try to get the longest subs possible - You have proved to me that I don't need to do this. Although, am I right in thinking that a modded camera is more light sensitive?

[dlp]

Thanks Sara, and I appreciate the comment having seen the effort you put in to your images too.

My 1000D has had the IR filter removed, so is more sensitive to light in that region, although I have to say that on this target at least the results aren't that convincing over my unmodded Nikon, and I can use the Nikon at ISO1600 with probably better noise.

I forgot to mention that I used a CLS clip filter, and this, with its ND effect, further reduces that 20s. I haven't done any scientific tests but I reckon it's at least 1 stop, so effective time about 10s!

David

PS The 4 hrs was 4hrs after conversion, calibration, aligning & stacking!

[MartinB]

Lovely work David and you've done a nice job with the processing. Could just do with a little boost to the blue maybe?

[PortableAstronomer]

For only 20 sec subs that is impressive. You've also coped well with the large intensity range of M42. Did you use the HDRWaveletTransform by any chance?

[dlp]

HDRWavelets is my friend! I followed Harry's advice and made sure I had a good star mask first though!

[dlp]

Well, had a long play with some of the longer subs, integrating them with the 20s ones, and I'm darned if I could see any worthwhile difference. Maybe a slight improvement in Running Man.

So I just had a further play with the existing one. Upped the blue a bit, increased saturation here and there (Yay, found my old Wacom!), and used Olly's star reduction technique here and there for some dodgy looking ones.

Comments welcome!

David

[RikM]

I think that's a cracking image David.

Rik