Orion Star Field - SBIG STX - Full-Sized Image Uploaded

[Martin Pugh]

Hello all
been off-line for a while, what with lots of travel and a heavy winter.

So this image has been in the making for a good while....plenty Orions around and its still the season.

I was pleased to see that this fit in a single FOV of the STX/FSQ combination.

about 19 hours in all, plus extra Ha of just the Horsehead blended in too. 19 hours at f5? testament to my very poor skies here.

hope you like it and thanks for looking as always.

http://tinyurl.com/ya8o4th

cheers
Martin

[mick pinner]

now that is nothing less than brilliant.

[CoolhandJo (Paul)]

Apod stuff here! The richness of the colours and how they blend into the various shades is something I havn't seen before of this region. Even when zoomed in the detail is splendid. Worth the 19 hours for sure

[multiweb (Marc)]

That is a huge field. Fantastic work Martin!

[jase (Jason)]

Lovely result Martin which shows the gear off nicely, but to be pedantic the FOV is too tight. Two frame mosaic would have done the scene justice. Also M42 core looks colour less. All other accounts this is a top shelf image. Well done.

[AlexN]

I agree with Jase, its nice, but a little claustrophobic.. That said, its easily 4x my FOV with my 480mm FL.. The 16803 is awesome! Also think that M42's blending seems a bit obvious and rough.. That said, its better than any or my attempts. .

[Rigel003 (Graeme)]

Go easy guys. I think this is just magnificent, Martin. Fantastic image of an amazing area. Great colour and sharpness and packed with detail all over.

[desler]

That really is something quite special! Nicely done.


Darren

[iceman (Mike)]

Stunning image, Martin. The colour and smoothness are amazing.
Scrolling around the full-res is amazing.

I agree about the tightness of the FOV but i'm sure you can add to it later with a few more panels.

Brilliant.

[LGT150 (lucien)]

Magnifique grand champ image très fine j'adore
Amicalement Lucien.

[RobF (Rob)]

Wow. The talk of mosaics makes me realise this already feels like 4 or 9 panels from a normal camera/OTA combination stitched together. I think I spent 5-10 mins on the HH/flame region alone.

Tour de force stuff

[h0ughy (David)]

wow - now that just makes you want to cry. Simply stunning....

[JD2439975 (Justin)]

Wow...that hit me like a brick when the page loaded, stunning.
Well worth your 19 hours Martin & thank you for sharing.

My only criticism is of my monitor...it's just not big enough to take in all that beauty.
True a mosaic could make it even more magnificent, say 8 panels surrounding it...thats only a mere 152 hours to go.

Justin.

[strongmanmike (Michael)]

Really lovely shot Martin, I don't think it looks too crowded really

That's a BIG FOV for one frame

Have you noticed any RBI with the 16803 chip or had to use the RBI flush feature at all?

Mike

[astroron (Ron)]

It looks beautiful to me to my eye there is nothing wrong with it,

[gregbradley]

Fabulous image Martin and an interesting conundrum. Your FSQ106N is showing off the fluorite elements with the rich colour. You most likely would not have gotten that richness of colour from the later FSQ106ED.

Yet the FSQ106ED has a reducer available that enables you to get a wider FOV easily (I have done the same shot) albeit at a lower resolution.

I feel the FSQ106N is the better scope overall for imaging despite the
convenience of some of the FSQ106ED's features.

But in this case it would require 2 panels ideally. You got some terrific richness of colour though that is spectacular and really makes the image.

Then again that reducer on the FSQ106Ed is a beauty. I wonder if someone could make a reducer for the 106N. For that matter I wonder if the new reducer does in fact work on the FSQ106N?

Greg.

[Martin Pugh]

Hello all

and thanks for the great feedback....no one minds criticism, and I certainly do not. In fact, the comment about the colourless centre of M42 was spot on - in fact, I did address this, but in a later processing stage, obviously forgot to reenable that layer!

Anyway, I have addressed this now and fixed it back up.
Not sure I agree with the Alex's comment about M42 though - looks fine to me.

Mike - no RBI at all in this camera, despite deliberate attempts to produce it....Unless I am not seeing it.

Greg - I couldnt agree more - the damn holding clips in the FSQ106N produce those horrible arefacts in all the bright stars. I assume Tak fixed this in the ED?

I also agree entirely about the framing - it goes against all the usual rules - but I just couldnt resist doing this in a single effort.

thanks again everyone - hope you like the reprocessed core of M42 now.

cheers
Martin

[plmilligan1968 (Paul)]

Firstly, I am amazed that the entire image fits into a single field of view.
Secondly, I am amazed with 19 hours exposure time - wow!
Thirdly, I am amazed with the photo.

A truly stunning widefield image showing awesome detail!

Amazing, I would definately submit this to APOD, if you do good luck getting it published, it fully deserves to be shown!!

Clear skies
Paul M..

[Lester]

Thanks for the fantastic view Martin.

All the best.

[marc4darkskies (Marcus)]

A very lovely shot Martin, well done!

Aaah yes, the old forgot-to-leave-the-adjustment-layer-visible trick - done that one myself but much better with the colour back in the core! While I don't particularly like the framing I sure can appreciate how nice it must be to fit that FOV in one frame!! Also, I'd have expected 19hrs would have let you bring out the deep neb a bit more strikingly (?) I guess with all the blizzards you've been having over there good transparency must be rare? The transparency in Sydney is nothing special either - zero most nights !

Cheers, Marcus