[alocky (Andrew lockwood)]

Originally Posted by Placidus

Some especially beautifully presented passages off toward the right and bottom right.

Thanks Mike and Trish - I spent ages just tracing some of these features to try and figure out how they could have formed.

Originally Posted by Paul Haese

That's a great image Andrew. I really think the detail in the core is very nice. Lovely colour too.

Thanks Paul!

Originally Posted by strongmanmike

Yes, seems easy... but definitely a challenging object to process but you have done a pretty good job here Andrew, the soft pastels are pleasing too

Mike

Thanks Mike! And I was trying so hard to keep the decon below your irritation threshold

Originally Posted by gregbradley

A very fine M42 Andrew.

Greg.

Thanks Greg!

Originally Posted by marc4darkskies

Agree with Peter - a fine rendition and I think you've handled the dynamic range very well. Your ringed stars are a distraction at full res though. Overall, it's a bit soft for me too - I definitely think your data is good enough to show some more contrast / sharpness in the neb.

PS: Saturation looks spot on. Just for fun though I just had a bit of a fiddle to fix the stars, bring out some more faint detail and sharpen a bit ... WOW! You've got some great data here Andrew! IMHO this great image can be even greater!

ArrgH! I need more details on what you've done there! I couldn't squeeze much more detail out without creating too much noise.

Originally Posted by Peter Ward

A fine M42. Quibbles about sharpening rings on some, but not all, stars aside, the dynamic range is really well handled. Nice one.

Thanks Peter! It sure is tricky to get decon that doesn't show up against such bright nebulosity.

Originally Posted by vlazg

Very nice image Andrew.

If you deconvoluted the 30 sec stack, maybe some tweaking of the global dark and light in deringing may remove the dark rings and dark centre of the stars which is visible in e hi-res version

Thanks - I've been able to get the E and F stars to pop out by masking the decon out of the shorter sub region, but using the global settings then makes the decon ineffective outside the brighter area. Definitely one for the local support feature I think.

Originally Posted by JA

It's a lovely image Locky

Best
JA

Thanks JA!