NGC 1976 - a rarely imaged gem.

[alocky]

Yeah, I know. I'd started on this before JJJ posted her very nice image, but I'm chuffed with the selective masking around the Trapezium in this one. Any it won't be the last this year either...
LRGB at 8 x 300s each channel, with a set of 30s subs as well for the Trapezium, and processed in Pixinisght and Photoshop. I've also got some S2 and Ha data, but haven't worked out what to do with that yet.
Scope was the Venerable Meade (10" starfinder f4.5 on a G11) and the camera was a QSI683wsg.
Constructive criticism, admiring oohs and aahs all welcomed.
Astrobin link
http://www.astrobin.com/69759/
cheers,
Andrew.

[peter_4059]

Oooh. That's turned out nice. The Meade gives a pretty flat field.

[batema]

Very nice indeed.

[allan gould]

An oooooooh and an ahhhhhhh from me.
Allan

[IanP]

And one more oooooooh and one more ahhhhhhh from me.
:thumbsup:

[alocky]

Thanks guys!



Hi Peter - I've got a Baader made Ross corrector on the front of the QSI which helps a lot with the relatively large chip. The coma was pretty bad on this thing back in the old film SLR days.
cheers,
Andrew.

[dutch2]

Very beautiful, well done.
:thumbsup:

[nebulosity.]

WOW! Don't think I've ever seen this before :question: Looks great whatever it is :P

Jo

[John Hothersall]

Love the outer blue gray smokey ring you caught well.

John.

[multiweb]

Ripper shot. Very sharp. :thumbsup:

[rogerg]

Great smooth colour :thumbsup:

I would prefer to see the centre kept brighter. Not bright enough that it would over-saturate but rather that it represents the fact it is brighter than the surrounding nebula. :shrug:

[alocky]

thanks!



And as I had foreseen, it wasn't the last of the year either...



Thanks John - I like the creepy neck and mouth shape in the top left corner.



Thanks, I had a bit of luck with the seeing, the tracking error was in the order of an arc second or two.



Thanks Roger - I've heard the same comment from another respected local astrophotographer, and did spend a bit of time agonising over it. I decided I'd rather see the 6 stars of the trapezium and the mackerel sky effect clearly instead. To my eye, this is more representative of the view through the eyepiece of the 25", although obviously there's not quite so much colour through the eyepiece.

cheers,
Andrew.

[strongmanmike]

I would agree with Roger on this... but I see what you you are saying and fair'nuff :)... regardless, overall a very cool image Andy :thumbsup:...those filaments on the right look great

Mike

[Ross G]

Great capture Andrew....amazing clarity and detail.


Ross.

[jjjnettie]

I love it on that angle, it make it look so different. So much to love about M42. The frothing waterfall of nebulosity to the right (3o'clock) with it's streamers of dark dust is gorgeous. :)
You might consider backing off a bit on the sharpening though, the stars are haloed.

[David Fitz-Henr]

Nice shot Andrew; you've captured some great detail in this image!

[astronobob]

Thats a class image Andrew, nothing like a new object with out a blown core, mate :P
Credit with ya processing on this one, also being a newish target, id have to rank it up near the best of em ;)
Top show :thumbsup:

[alocky]

Thanks Mike - I have an excuse to reprocess it and see if I can find a compromise!


Thanks Ross!


Thanks JJJ - I can't take any artistic credit for the angle, as the camera only fits on the focuser in one orientation!
Good point about the halos though, it might benefit from using a star mask during the deconvolution, since there's actually a bit more detail able to be extraced from the nebulosity.


Thanks David!


Thanks - its amazing how much better our eyes are at handling the dynamic range of these things than electronics.