M 42.

[batema (Mark)]

Hi,

Last night was fine again so why not have a crack at trying to process M 42 so I can see the core stars. I have taken the following with my W/O Flt 110 and Canon 400d at ISO 800.

15 x 20 sec Lights and 5 darks
15 x 60 sec Lights and 5 darks
11 x 5 min Lights and 4 darks

I processed the 20 and 60 sec images and then masked them to reveal the core. I flattened this image and then used it to lay on top of the processed 5 minute stack to reveal more of the core. I followed some tutorial videos for this and then used some on N Carboni's processes to improve things.

I have never really been successful when I have tried this so am pretty happy with the result but of course advice would be helpfull.

Mark

[multiweb (Marc)]

Looks great to me. Excellent focus and colors.

[steve000 (Steve)]

beautiful image.

have you ever noticed that M42 almost always looks like someone painted it

[DavidU (Dave)]

I like it ! Great colours.

[h0ughy (David)]

for the data you have done well Mark Like the result

[jjjnettie (Jeanette)]

I'd like to see a bit more contrast, but that's just me.
You've done a fabulous job nailing the Trap.
Well done young man.
Hope we can catch up very soon. (hows those brownie points going?)

[Ross G]

Hi Mark,

I really like your photo of M42.

It has a nice "natural" look.


Ross.

[OzRob (Rob)]

Looks good. Just looks like it has a bit of a red cast to my eyes.

Is this a crop? If it isn't your coma is a bit better than mine was before I added a flattener.

[batema (Mark)]

Hi Rob and thankyou all for the comments,

It is a crop as the nebula was not really located centrally. This is the original shot prior to cropping.

Mark

[irwjager (Ivo)]

Brilliant effort and nicely processed with that amount of data. Watching those tutorials definitely paid off!