Nice work Phil. Colour balance is a little out of whack (pink tones), but you've picked up an immense amount of nebulosity. There are a few other ways to approach the dynamic range. If you crop out M42 and perform a DDP on it, the recombine it (blend) into the wide field shot again you'll get the result I expect you're after. Make sure you feather it though as the transition will need to be smooth. Look forward to seeing the next rendition. Nice "first-light" for the lens too.
