Great Orion Nebula

[Atmos]

Ever since I bought my Mewlon 250 I have long wanted to photograph the Great Orion Nebula at 2500mm focal length... even if it is awfully slow at F/10. On NYE I finally got the chance and I'm pretty happy with the results.

The thumbnail image isn't the one on Astrobin but has been pushed past warp speed :lol:
Astrobin UHD (https://www.astrobin.com/full/jlvxlu/B/)

This is 135x60s exposures, I wanted to sit and forget so I picked the longest exposures I could get without over saturating the core. The stars A-F in the Trap are all visible but the F (I believe) isn't a clear split. Could always try some short exposures one night to just do the Trap.
I've attached a lightly stretched an saturated crop around the trap. One of the good things about a slow F/10 is longer exposures before saturation.

EDIT:
Better colour version

[Peter Ward]

OK I've got some quibbles about the colour accuracy...but the scale and resolution is, well...

...perhaps best put by Magda Szubanski: Nooice! :thumbsup::thumbsup:

[Atmos]

What are your thoughts on the colour accuracy? I haven't done any comparisons against others (probably a good idea!). I used the PhotometricColorCalibration script in PI and I must admit, I'm not always overly happy with the colour that it produces but this didn't appear to have some glaring issues that it sometimes produces :)

EDIT:
This is two different colour versions. The left side is the original PPC while the right is the normal ColorCalibration. The PPC version is definitely bluer.

[Xeteth]

The level of detail is simply incredible. Congratulations on a great shot!

[Atmos]

Thanks David, I'm pretty happy with the data that came out of the night :)

Peter was correct, the colour balance was off by some ways and definitely too blue. Had a look at the Chart32 guys and tried to match the reds so I'm much happier with the new version.

[strongmanmike]

Nice colouring, M42 can be a rewarding subject, despite its historical popularity :thumbsup:

Mike

[codemonkey]

Nice one Colin. Soooo much depth.

Looks like the latest revision on Astrobin is a toned down version of the one from post #5?

[JA]

Col, the Astrobin version is SUPERB (coluor, detail, the works). Well done :thumbsup::thumbsup::thumbsup:

One question: Is that from here in the Melbourne suburbs or somewhere dark?

Best
JA

[Atmos]

Thanks Mike, it does get done to death a bit but we’ve all got to photograph everything once ;)



Thanks Lee :thumbsup:

It’s more that the thumbnail version in Post #5 is it on Warp Factor 9 :lol:



Thanks :)

It was shot from the burbs, out in Epping. Skies aren’t even remotely dark haha

[MLParkinson]

Wow, beautiful image, I would gladly photograph M42 a hundred times. It never, ever bores me.

[multiweb]

Awesome Orion. Like them all. :thumbsup::thumbsup::thumbsup:

[Atmos]

Thanks Murray and Marc. Even if it is a region done to death, there is still a lot of variation between images :)

[gregbradley]

Lovely original image of Orion, as mentioned a bit too blue but otherwise sensational and a very pleasing framing and stars with some nice bright looking stars well shown.

It may be that you could blend in that excellent Trap image that splits the doubles so well.

The later one though to my eye is badly overcontrasted which creates a very unnatural look. I take it this is the result of PI processing, as its one of its negative trademarks. The heavy HDR look that is.

Greg.

[Andy01]

if you're brave enough to post a photograph of M42 after so many wonderful versions (including Peter Ward's from this years Malins) have previously been posted, it had better be good - and yours certainly is, well done! :thumbsup:
Looks great :D

[Atmos]

Thanks Greg :)
I haven't given bending in the trap a lot of attention yet but it is something I'd like to try to do and still retain some naturalness. Don't think that's going to be easy at all!

It definitely has the looks of being very over contrasted but it isn't a PI process, you can thank Lightroom for that ;) My PI processing is actually really very subtle but I then take it into LR to play with some of the sliders. I should do a natural not overly contrasty version but it sometimes doesn't look as "good" when printed.



Thanks Andy, it was Peters that had me wanting to give it a crack with a non wide field instrument ;)

[multiweb]

I've just realised I have a massive Orion imaging withdrawal. :sadeyes:
Thanks to David (h0ughy) for reminding me it's up there.
Really cool shots Colin. :thumbsup:

[Decimus]

:eyepop:Fantastic, detailed, glorious image, Colin. Well done!

[LewisM]

Your latest revision Colin (https://www.astrobin.com/full/jlvxlu/B/) is really nice IMHO. I agree the first rendition though was a touch gaudy.

[lazjen]

Agree with what Lewis says in previous post. Definitely prefer the latest revision.

[Atmos]

Which telescope gets Orion this time? I think your last shot was a Ha with the M210?



Thanks Richard :) Time for you to put that D850 on your refractor ;)





Thanks Lewis and Chris, I do want to revisit this data again once I'm finished playing around with the Horse ;)