NGC 1977 Running Man

[Matty P]

First go at this target and first go with using EQMOD pulseguiding.

Spent the first couple hours of the night playing around with EQMOD before starting imaging. Very happy with EQMOD and pulseguiding so far. Got me round stars. :D

Was a pleasure to process as I suspect the number of subs really helped (over 2hrs worth). Would've of captured more but the Running Man disappeared behind the house. :P

Anyway here are the details.

Celstron C8 f/6.3 and EQ6 Pro with EQMOD
Guided with Pulseguide through PHD
Canon 450D
28 x 5 minute subs at ISO 800
Calibrated with Darks and Flats
Stacked in DSS and processed in PS CS3

Larger image here (2000px) Can't pest me about the image size anymore. :lol: Finally updated my webiste.

http://astromatt7.googlepages.com/Running-Man-2000-2.jpg/Running-Man-2000-2-full;init:.jpg

Thanks for looking. :thumbsup:

[gregbradley]

An excellent image Matt.

You could move the black point up to the histogram (ie slide it to the right in levels in Photoshop) as it is showing some whiteness in the background. This will improve contrast a lot and you can then push it more to bring out more detail and colour richness.

Greg.

[Matty P]

Thanks for your input Greg. I do agree with you. Having a second look at the image the background does seem a little light.

Will fix it now. :thumbsup:

[Matty P]

I have just updated the images with a new version. Much better now in my opinion. A darker background really helps bring out the nebula.

:thumbsup:

[leon]

Matty you have done well with this one mate, keep up the good work.

I am so sick of imaging m42 and will let it go this year, regardless of what i try I just can't seem to get it balanced.

Never mind there are plenty of other objects to have a look at.

Leon

[Craig_L]

Very nice Matt and good framing.

[batema]

Great image Matt. Too often M42 draws our eyes away from this remarkable man but by itself it looks stunning. Well done. I'll have a crack at this probably in march/april as soon as the weather in SE Qld clears.

Mark

[Screwdriverone]

Top Work Matty.

That's amazingly close and the stars are fantastic.

The orientation always reminds me of a juggling man who is juggling those stars (two in the air on the left and he's just dropped three on the right) :lol:

I could never figure out why it was called the running man - UNTIL I turned my head to the side and went......aaaaaaah OK.

Great pic, thanks for sharing.

Cheers

Chris

[gregbradley]

Ah yes, very nice. And well done getting over 2 hours of exposure. The longer exposure time is the way to go.

Greg.

[bluescope]

Good one Matty .... hope you don't mind I've rotated the little guy ! Ofcourse there is no correct way up but it does look more like it's namesake in this orientation I think ... hope you agree.

:thumbsup:

[Matty P]

Thanks Leon.

I know what you mean. Although of the relative overall brightness, M42 is actually one of the most difficult objects to image. I had a go at it a while back but my colours were way off but I was able to get a reasonable image out of it.

Keep at it but there's plenty of other objects to image. ;)



Thanks Craig.

Glad you liked it. :)



Cheers Mark.

Funny you say that. I was actually going to image M42 instead. :lol: Being a neighbour to the Orion it is definitely overlooked and forgotten about.

Hope it clears up for you.

:thumbsup:

[Matty P]

Thanks Chris.

Most deep sky objects have names which have little or no resemblance to the actual object. Atleast this one actually looks like its given name.

LOL a juggling man.... could work. :lol:



It really smooths out the image. The more the better in this case.



I wasn't sure which way looked more like a running man but the way you have it looks right to me. You could also say the way I have looks correct as well.

I guess the correct way is what you can make out of it. ;)

Thanks. :thumbsup:

[RB]

Very nice shot Matt.
Colours look good.

:)

[Garyh]

Very nice Matt!
I did exactly the same last night as well as I reckon the Man needs his own image!
Well done!
cheers Gary

[Hagar]

Very nice image Matt. I am much like the rest and have no idea which way is up. It can be constrewed as a running man in at least two positions. Looks like your gear is working very well. Nice guiding and colour well Done.

[Paul Haese]

Nice image Matt. Agree about the black point, but stars are nice and tight, image is really smooth but has sharp detail. Well done.