What The... M42 with DMK???

[Matty P (Matt)]

I am no DSO guy but seeing that I had all my imaging equipment already set up. I decided why not give a try!

After imaging Saturn I slewed the scope to the M42. I changed the exposure settings and there it was on the lappy screen. The M42 Orion Nebula! It is a total different experience to planetary imaging, definitely no comparison.

After shooting the M42 I decided to look for the Horsehead Nebula and Witch Head Nebula which were near by. I could a small amount of nebulosity in both. I was a bit hard finding them because of the Full Moon.

I had not realised the potential of this camera until last night.


P.S. Having no idea of how to process DSOs I just ran it through Registax.

What do you think? Not bad for a bit of mucking around.

[ballaratdragons (Ken)]

Great going, Matty.

Always worth trying the unusual.

Try M42 again, but next time take the barlow out and you'll be pleasantly suprised

[edwardsdj (Doug)]

Not bad for mucking around at all Matty

It's awesome that you've captured the trapezium and so much nebulosity.

[Matty P (Matt)]

Originally Posted by ballaratdragons

Great going, Matty.

Always worth trying the unusual.

Try M42 again, but next time take the barlow out and you'll be pleasantly suprised

Thanks Ken,

I actually didn't use a Barlow at all. Just my long focal length.

Originally Posted by edwardsdj

Not bad for mucking around at all Matty

It's awesome that you've captured the trapezium and so much nebulosity.

Thanks Doug,

I am surprised that I captured that much nebulosity myself. I really wanted to capture either the Horsehead or Witchhead Nebula but the Full Moon really stuffed things up.

[Dennis]

Hi Matty

Nice work with the DMK; it's a terrific camera eh!

Here is an image of the Trapezium region I took with my DMK21AF04 on the last clear night I had in Brisbane - 23rd October 2007! Using a Mewlon 180 F12 with TeleVue x2.5 PowerMate under very good seeing conditions.

I started getting blobby stars at an exposure of 1/3 second. What exposure did you use for your images, it looks like you went much deeper?

Cheers

Dennis

[Matty P (Matt)]

Dennis,

I used a 2sec exposure up to a 4sec exposure to get as much nebulosity as I could.

Any suggestions on how I can process these images?

[theodog (Jeff)]

Originally Posted by Matty P

I am no DSO guy but seeing that I had all my imaging equipment already set up. I decided why not give a try!

After shooting the M42 I decided to look for the Horsehead Nebula and Witch Head Nebula which were near by. I could a small amount of nebulosity in both. I was a bit hard finding them because of the Full Moon.

I had not realised the potential of this camera until last night.

Ahhhh -no turning back now.

[Dennis]

Hi Matty

I think that you have grabbed some nice nebulosity for exposures as short as between 2 and 4 seconds, but I think you will need much longer exposures to show more detail in the nebulosity, but then you may also find you burn out the brighter stars.

I basically did what you did, punched the AVI’s through Registax to align and stack the best frames. I have been meaning to have a go at this region again, using exposures of 30 seconds with my DBK (colour model) to see what I can pick up, but the weather hasn’t been very cooperative.

I remember grabbing a 60 sec shot with my Canon 40D using the reducer/flattener on the Mewlon 180 back in November 2007.

Cheers

Dennis

[Matty P (Matt)]

Dennis,

I found that when I increased the exposure time the brighter stars were burnt out.

Will a UV/IR filter help?

I hope the skies clear up for you.

[Ric]

Good start Matty, welcome to the dark side.

Cheers

[Matty P (Matt)]

Originally Posted by Ric

Good start Matty, welcome to the dark side.

Cheers

NEVER!!!

[Dennis]

Originally Posted by Matty P

Dennis,

I found that when I increased the exposure time the brighter stars were burnt out.

Will a UV/IR filter help?

I hope the skies clear up for you.

Hi Matty

I have always kept a Baader UV/IR block filter on my DMK and DBK to avoid IR bloating as these chips are sensitive to the IR region of the spectrum.

Cheers

Dennis

PS – Thanks, your wish came true; last night the skies cleared…..right up to just before the start of the occultation of Regulus by the Moon.

[Matty P (Matt)]

Originally Posted by Dennis

Hi Matty

I have always kept a Baader UV/IR block filter on my DMK and DBK to avoid IR bloating as these chips are sensitive to the IR region of the spectrum.

Cheers

Dennis

PS – Thanks, your wish came true; last night the skies cleared…..right up to just before the start of the occultation of Regulus by the Moon.

Your welcome Dennis.

Great to see that you finally got out under the stars.