M42 Orion Nebula

[Waqar]

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)

[JA]

Wonderful job Wagar:thumbsup:

Best
JA

[multiweb]

+1 Superb :thumbsup::thumbsup::thumbsup:

[Placidus]

From the 'burbs, that is most impressive.

[strongmanmike]

A very nice Job that Waqar, good processing choices :thumbsup:

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.

Mike

[pkinchington]

wow!

[DaveNZ]

Very nice. Good detail. Like the bright blue star to the lower right

[xa-coupe]

One of the better ones I've seen.

[Waqar]

thanks everyone for your kind words and appreciation :)

[gregbradley]

That’s a beauty.
Greg

[Waqar]

thanks Greg :)