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Old 22-03-2011, 07:47 PM
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mental4astro (Alexander)
kids+wife+scopes=happyman

mental4astro is offline
 
Join Date: Jun 2008
Location: sydney, australia
Posts: 4,979
Nice work Ivan.

M42 presents so many opportunities for all sizes of scopes. It is birght enough for a small scope to suss out faint details, and delicate enough for large scopes to be challenged to bring out.

I like the extensions of the 'seagull wings'. M43 can be a challenge to see in the Big Smoke. And the 'fish mouth' is nicely prominant (that's the dark protusion that arcs infront of the Trapesium). This dark pillar is one of my favourite features in the whole sky. At a dark site, and with a bit of grunt in the magnification, a soft glow can be made out around the top of its 'head', reminisent of the fabulous pics of dark pillars taken by Hubble. A mottled structure to it is easier to make out with larger scopes, but everyone should have a go at trying to make it out - another opportunity presented by M42!

Good one mate.

Mental.
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