M42 focal reduced

[rumples riot]

Here you go people

2 x 4mins
iso 800
Stacked
Processed in photoshop
NoiseWare

First processing attempt at 2 am. Comments welcome

Paul

[iceman]

Very very nice Paul, easily the best M42 i've seen you produce. Looks like you're getting a good handle on the D70 at prime focus now!

Excellent work. :thumbsup:

[seeker372011]

That's a great shot

[Saturn%5]

:2thumbs: :clap:

[Mick]

To cool Paul.

[rumples riot]

Thanks all for the comments, there is more nebulosity in the shot, but I have to learn how to mask the trapesium so that it does ot get that washed out, might try doing something with it over the week end. Anyone got any tips on how to do this? Gary?

Paul

[gbeal]

Paul,
nice shot, I too am awaiting some clear weather, but you know that anyway. Very nice.
Not really sure how to enhance the faint stuff, without losing the bright. I will ask my boy, who has a better grip on Photoshop than me. I wonder also about a quick google with the question, as many must have gone down the same road.
Is there slight trailing, or coma? Not being clever, just asking. I don't recall the outcome of the reducer/field derotator/focuser issue, is this without the de rotator?
How about Eta Carina now?
Gary

[gbeal]

Duh!!!
JUst discovered your Eta post, sorry.
Same deal. Maybe it is a bit of coma? Try it without the reducer perhaps. And on Eta, as the surrounding stars seem a bit brighter. Good to iron all these snags out early.
Gary

[rumples riot]

Gary, the trailing is caused from the LPI being used as a autoguider, I had the exposure times up to 8 seconds so that the LPI could guide. Unfortunately, this caused some trailing in each of the shots. I think that I need to raise the gain in the settings so that i can reduce the exposure time. There is also some field rotation which is strange as I had the field rotator going as well. It might have been my initial setup. I am limited to which stars I can align with. So yes you are right, With the reducer on I get a much broader FOV and I can focus (only manually) with the field derotator, but need to get a better alignment.

Will keep trying.

Paul

[rumples riot]

Did some reprocessing with the shot, did a Guassian mask and added another image to the stack. I think that this shows the nebula much better. What does everyone think?

Paul

[iceman]

Very nice, the colour is much better. Great job!

[[1ponders]]

:cool:

[seeker372011]

I am not sure if you are already familiar with Jerry Lodriguss e-book but

http://www.astropix.com/HTML/J_DIGIT/TOC_DIG.HTM

describes how to combine two exposures-eg a long exposure for nebulosity and a short exposure for the Trapezium stars- using M42 as an example

Great image by the way

[rumples riot]

Thanks Mate, I used his tutorial for making an unsharp mask, I will have a look at the long and short exposure tutorial, see I if i can improve this shot a bit.

Paul

[Mick]

Wow :eyepop: send that one to S&S Paul.

[rumples riot]

Hey thanks Mick for the incredible compliment, maybe I will send it, but I think I still have a very long way to go before I can really compete with the other guys out there, who get published often.

Thanks all the same, really appreciate the support.:)

Paul

[ving]

man that a beautiful pic!
congrats!

[vindictive666]

nice pic :)

[rumples riot]

did some more fiddling with the shot. Looks a little over processed, but I like it for the nebulosity. What do you all think, does it look better or not?

[rumples riot]

No comments? Thought I might get something, want to know if it is worth keeping for the album.

[Mick]

I'ts well worth keeping Paul, I wish I could take M42 images like that. The stacking and processing has me tricked at the moment.
:xmas:

[Strgazr27]

Paul,

Don't know if anyone posted this but you could try here:

http://www.astropix.com/PFA/SAMPLE4A/SAMPLE4A.HTM

Hope it helps.

CS's

Bobby

[iceman]

Paul I preferred your earlier one, the latest processing effort looks (as you say) a bit overdone, the stars just don't look right anymore.

I guess when it continues to be cloudy, there's nothing else to do than keep processing your images, refining the post-processing technique!

Great shot Jason!

[ving]

I actually quite like your shot jason. just needs a little tidying up.

paul, yeah a little over processed :/ very good tho

[ving]

I like it!:cool:

[rumples riot]

No problem Jason, Nice wide field of M42, quite like the composition.

Hey Mick if you need some tips with stacking and processing, I am more than happy to help. Only been doing this a short time myself, but have read and done all the tutorials, and so have a lot more knowledge than when I started.

Bobby, got that guys site on my favorites, am currently working my way through all his tutorials for the second and third times, thanks for the thought though.

Yeah have to agree that the stars are looking a little weird but am learning more about processing especially since the WEATHER IS SO CRAP!!!!!

Sorry for the out burst, just getting a little frustrated with the inclement weather.

Thanks all for your comments, it is all appreciated.

[rumples riot]

Jason I did a little fiddling on your shot, hope you dont mind.

[rumples riot]

Yeah sure, in photoshop I adjusted the levels with the middle slider to the left, then adjusted the curves one heading towards the black end and the other towards the light end, then increased the contrast to +4 and reduced the brightness to -3. Then I increased the saturation to +25 and finally did a max noise reduction in Noiseware.

Paul

[Mick]

Thanks Paul, I appreciate that. :D

[rumples riot]

Very interesting Jason, I don't think we will win any awards just yet, but you might be onto something there.:eyepop:

Keep cool got to go and take some shots, the clouds have cleared.:)