M42

[rumples riot]

Thought I would contribute some shots of my own of M42

2x 3 mins stacked
adjust levels
adjust curves
adjust hue saturation
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Enjoy

[kats]

OMG! Whats that bugman thing on the top left section of the image?

[seeker372011]

Here's another image of M42 acquired with a very small scope-an ETX 70 -and a modified for long exposure Phillips Tou Cam.

I actually took this picture in May this year but reprocessed it a couple of days ago using techniques outlined by Jerry Lodriguss

http://www.astropix.com/INDEX.HTM

[rumples riot]

Kats the bugman thing is a piece of dust that was on the CCD of my camera.

Seeker, not bad shot for webcam, you might like to try using IRIS to reduce you star trailing.

Paul

[seeker372011]

The bane of my life is the poor tracking of my mount-I can get 15 seconds maximum and its alt az anyway so there is a field rotation issue when stacking multiple images

downloaded IRIS yesterday, have to figure out how to use it tonight

[iceman]

Apparently "registar" can correct field rotation when stacking multiple images..

There's a trial version you can download, but it won't let you save the images..

It's like $200 AU to buy it :(

15 seconds is about all I can do on my fixed camera tripod with my Sony P100 mounted on top :P

[Saturn%5]

Hey guys they are still alot better than my attempts,Keep'em coming.

[seeker372011]

OK I reworked M42 , going back to the original avis captured, using Registax and photoshop, and here is the result.

Remember, the scope was an ETX 70-70 mm aperture refractor-and the camera was a Phillips Tou Cam (webcam), not a14 inch RCOS and SBIG ST 10 XME combo unfortunately....

[rumples riot]

Hmm, I think the first shot was a lot better, it showed the nebulosity really well.

Paul

[seeker372011]

It's the same shot just reprocessed --more sharpened the second time..also no star trails and lots more detail...ok lets go back to the drawing-processing- board and see if I can combine the best of both-maybe that is the way to go...

[rumples riot]

Yea sorry, I meant that while some of the shot has improved the level of nebulosity has dropped and the back ground seems to have more noise in it now that it did in your initial shot.

Still very good for a webcam.

Paul

[iceman]

Have you tried running it through NeatImage to reduce the noise?

Also the latest program around seems to be PixInSight for both reducing noise and playing with wavelets etc.

The best thing about it, it seems, is that there is documentation and it is astrophotography focussed, unlike many other image processing tools.