This target will always have a special place in my heart as it was the first target I ever managed to capture with a basic DSLR and kit lense in Feb 2020. First shot was just a small purple out of focus blob as I had no tracking equipment and had no idea what I was doing lmao. But practice brings progress with it.
Captured this from my Backyard in Suburban Melbourne Australia a couple of weeks ago with 8 hours of total integration time acquired over 3 nights.
Equipment:
Scope: GSO 8" F5 newt
Coma corrector: Baadar MPCC MKiii
Main camera: QHY294c
Filter: Lux UV IR cut
Guide scope: 80-400 Achromat
Guide cam: ZWO ASI120 MC-S
Focusser: ZWO EAF
Mount: AZEQ6-GT
Image acquisition:
90x300s @ unity gain -10c
60x30s @ unity gain -10c
All calibration frames added
Processing:
Deep sky stacker (stacking)
Gimp (stretching, color balancing and HDR processing)
Adobe PS (saturation, highlights and shadows control)
A very nice Job that Waqar, good processing choices
M42, especially a close up, is one of a few nebs that good true colour results can be achieved on, even under heavily light polluted skies. The Lagoon and the inner parts of the Carina Nebula are two others.
