Slim pickings here on the east coast lately - and with only a few hours of imaging available in the past few weeks, I thought I'd hit this ol' favourite on the rise in the wee hours last week. All up- only managed 2.5hrs which I thought would be enough for the c14 @ f1.9 and such a bright target... but the dimmer perimeter has suffered unfortunately with some serious noise to deal with.
I elected for 30sec subs with the Antila triband RGB filter to keep the trap under control. Funny though, even though I succeeded in not blowing that out, I actually didn't like the appearance of a dim contrasty core in m42.
Maybe it's just not what I'm used to, but after trying a few different versions chose to keep it pretty bright (not clipped I hope) and then proceeded to process a second image with just the trap/trapezium. Shooting @ f1.9 and ~680mm has its challenges, but think this worked out ok.
Higher res version here!
C14 non edge @f1.9 with the Starizona Hyperstar v3 (f1.9, 680ish mm fl)
EQ8 pro
Asi2600mc pro gain 0
Asi220mm / guidescope
ZWO EAF
ASIAIR pro / APP / PI / LR
Love the comments and feedback - thanks for checking it out!!