M42, 28 December 2017, Cowra NSW

[tim.anderson]

Imaged using an ASI1600MC and a 126mm refractor on an EQ8 mount. Eighty 1-second images in each of the L, R, G and B channels, stacked in Nebulosity and processed in Photoshop.

[Peter Ward]

Sorry this is not an epic rendering of M42....not a lot of shadow detail, and quite a bit of noise. Begging the question: Why the one second exposures?

80 ten minute exposures in each channel, now that would be impressive ;)

[clive milne]

Reminds me of the old hypered Fuji 400 days.

Maybe it's a nostalgia thing Peter? ;)

[Ross G]

Hi Tim,

Well composed with nice detail and I like the red colour.
There is a lot of noise.
What temp did you have the cooling at?
I have the same camera and the few shots I have been able to take I have had the cooling at -20, gain at 50 and my exposures have been from 2minutes to 5 minutes at F4.

Good luck.
Ross.

[xelasnave]

Thank you for posting your image Tim.
I find it amazing you achieved such a good result with one second exposures.
Thanks again.
Alex

[tim.anderson]

Yes, a lot of noise. I'm having trouble getting my darks to eliminate the noise in each of the monochrome channels. The 1-second images was a test, which seems to have come out rather nicely. At least it allows the Trapezium to show through while picking up a lot of the gas clouds. In this case, the red channel was actually imaged using a Sulphur narrowband filter. Go figure.

T

[spiezzy]

nice work Tim noise smoise looks good to me you can look right into the trapezium great test result and as for the noise we have all been there on the learning curve and you are getting up the ladder with that result well done cheers Pete

[tim.anderson]

Thanks.

Tonight (first clear night here in Cowra since forever and despite a three-quarter moon in the same quadrant), I'm in the middle of collecting 60-second monochrome subs of the Horsehead and Flame. Same setup - an ASI1600MC, ASI filter wheel and a 126mm refractor. I'll post the results if they are interesting (after the inevitable 10 hours of integration).

[tim.anderson]

-10 degrees, or at least that is what the software is telling me.

[tim.anderson]

Inigo Montoya springs to mind.

[RickS]

That's a good result given the short subs, Tim. Now you just need to do some longer ones and do a HDR combine to get the best of both worlds (a Trapezium that isn't burned out and low noise in the dim areas.)

Cheers,
Rick.