When I was a kid, I stared at this patch of sky for hours, marvelling at the delicate whisps of nebula through the eyepiece of a Unitron 3" refractor and then a Celestron 8. I tried to image it a number of times but I didn't have the tools to guide well enough to get anything like a decent result ...
... but
now I do!
So, after a 40 year wait, here is my rendition of this amazing patch of sky. My objective, as always, is to show the object as boldly as possible while trying to keep it as real as possible. I like the result, but can't rule out a sidonio at some point. Don't worry though, there are already
two sidonios built into this image already - I tinkered for quite while.
Naturally, I've blended in a shorter LRGB image to bring out the detail around the trapezium. Nope, no hubble detail there, but not bad for 2.21 arcsec/pixel.
Small:
http://www.pbase.com/gailmarc/image/121582105/large
Large (use
<Cntrl -> to zoom out &
<Cntrl +> to zoom in):
http://www.pbase.com/gailmarc/image/121582105/original
Hope you like it.
Cheers, Marcus