M42 - TAL125R

[moondog]

I seem to have been concentrating lately on imaging DSO's, so I decided to do some observing last night for a change !

Orion was well placed high in the South at about 11-00pm last night. I have very little light pollution to the South which really shows off Orion in all its glory. Homed in on the Sword Handle, M42, the Orion nebula.

TAL 125R 5 ins. achro. refractor. 15mm Vixen Lanthanum eyeypiece @ 75x - no filter.

The 4 stars of the Trapezium really seemed to stand out as sharp white points. The nebulosity was apparent as a grey swirling mist, with some faint strands visible. Changed to the 9mm Lanthanum @ 133x. This darkened the background a bit and improved the resolution of the nebulosity, with more tendrils becoming visible. About the finest view of M42 I've seen so far.

Screwed my new Baader Nebula filter into the 9mm Lanthanum. This is the first time I've tried a filter on nebulas.

What a difference !

The Trapezium stars were still very clear and bright, although they developed a blue cast because of the filter. But the nebulosity was now something else. Probably a three-fold increase in the extent of the nebulosity, together with a huge improvement in amount of detail visible. The shape that we all know from images of M42 was apparent, it's been described as an angel fish with its mouth open swallowing M43. Visually, to me, it looks like an ancient Assyrian double curved bow.

Up until now I've been a bit dismissive of using filters, but for anyone wanting to look at nebulas I can recommend the proper filter for the job. Does just what it says on the tin !

I've decided, in the future, I ought to split my time more evenly between imaging and observing.

MD

[FLO]

Good report MD

[geppetto]

Usefull report MD 8)

Especially the improvements in viewing using the Baader filter