M45 - which way is up. :-)

[BrentoAdAstra]

Here the dilemma! Which way is up?:rofl:322531

[BrentoAdAstra]

322532

[TrevorW]

Anyway which way is up :)

[bojan]

North should be up.

[leon]

I thought that a telescope always produced an inverted vision so if that is the case the second image you have should be right way up.

Leon

[Nikolas]

2nd image
also looks aesthetically better as well

[BrentoAdAstra]

Thanks Leon, Yes - I think you’re right, but I just get amused with the debate over the orientation, Northern Hemisphere vs Southern Hemisphere, etc, certainly most of the images I see are as per your comment. Cheers.

[BrentoAdAstra]

100% agree! Just had to muse over the debate by some AP people about orientation. What you’re used to seeing is a big part of it. Cheers

[strongmanmike]

Great shot Brenton, personally I like seeing the Pleiades looking like an Angel ie crucifix standing up, or else cropped at a slight angle, ala how the southern Cross is usually depicted but totally dealers choice :thumbsup:.

How you orient your images for maximum effect, can mean the difference between stardom and nobody notices. Case in point, back in early 2011 I took a picture of the nebulosity surrounding the otherwise boringly named NGC 6188 in Ara. I was using my then brand new 12" F3.8 astrograph Newtonian, coupled to my big 16803 FLI CCD camera, which together gave a field that I could also squeeze in the planetary nebula NGC 6164, a massive star and associated nebula bubble in Norma. Anyway, during processing I was rotating the field different ways, trying to establish which way looked best to my eye and sought the assistance and opinion of my lovely wife Angela, for her non astronomical eye for interior decorating. Well, after showing her different orientations she said "go back", so I did, then after a bit of a pause she said hmmm? "go back again...yeah that way, it looks like two dragons fighting...and wait, yeah, they are fighting over that magic pearl in the corner!" to which I exclaimed, "...hell yeah, it does too, you're a genius!" So I tweaked that a tad to "The fighting dragons of Ara" since it was in the constellation of Ara. I decided to enter it in the Royal Observatory Greenwich, Astronomy Photographer of the Year competition in 2011, where miraculously it received 3rd place in the Stars and Nebula category and was subsequently displayed at ROG and appeared all over the internet as a result :D

Sooo, to this day, almost everyone refers to this nebula as "The Fighting Dragons of Ara" (https://pbase.com/strongmanmike2002/image/134900874/original)....which will likely propogate down through the ages, keeping the discerning company of other ageless monikers, like "The Horsehead Nebula", "The Silver Dollar Galaxy" and "The Trifid Nebula" et al... and all thanks, to my lovely wife's discerning eye :D

Cool huh? she's a clever duck :) :thumbsup:

Mike

[BrentoAdAstra]

Yes, I agree. One starts to think of the "right way up” based on the orientation that you see M45 (or any DSO for that matter) presented in most cases. Cheers! Clear skies to us all!

[BrentoAdAstra]

What a great story!!:):eyepop: Angela has quite the “eye” for forms that’s for sure. One of my favourite DSO subjects - I plan to do a “wide-field” series on it, or a mosaic. But how great - here I was thinking it’s name had a mythical heritage …but how you named it is so precious! ;)

[BrentoAdAstra]

Yes, fair enough Bojan! -seems to be the convention. Thanks

[Leo.G]

Isn't the area with the date stamp the bottom?
LOL
There has often been confusion with northern hemisphere friends whenever I've shared lunar images elsewhere.
I've never found the man in the moon.


Mike that's certainly something to be proud of!
Besides, those who argue with their wife are never happy.

[BrentoAdAstra]

Not sure I responded Leon, but Yes I agree. Like some else said, the orientation when it looks like an angel is best. It does look better! North is up! :)