Dusty M42

[allan gould]

I know that jpeg artifacts are going to kill the presentation of this shot but I was interested to see just how much dust actually was in and around M42 and how well my new Megrez 72mm DDG scope + 0.8 FF would perform as an imaging scope. I was also interested to see how much CA this doublet had in comparison to my previous WO triplette scope.
I was quite happy with its performance but the full size uncompressed shot is so much smoother etc. Taken with QHY8 as 18x600 sec shots from suburgian BrisVegas. It hasnt ceased to amaze me how long I can go with No filters etc in my light polluted environment. I know there are colour gradients etc but the rain has set in and my next step is to do some narrow band or to get more colour data for this shot and go deeper.

[RobF (Rob)]

I've been looking forward to seeing this one Allan after your comments on the new Megrez. Its amazing how Tom Davis and others make it look so easy to bring out dust when its no such thing of course. YOu've certainly got a heck of a lot of dirt on display in that one for sure

[davewaldo]

Nice one Allan!

I think you need to upload a less compressed version to do this one justice

I'd love to have a good pixel peep at this one

[nebula]

I have just recieved a Megrez 72 (second scope to a $80 ebay 114x900). These sort of pictures are getting me excited. I am pairing it up with a celestron nexstar SLT, Im hoping tracking will be good enough to take some photos of nebula and the like and not just planets (though this may be the case).

Would love to see hi res version

[atalas]

allan,It's a good effort but I have to be honest with you, lots of things have gone wrong....look at the histogram,I'd say It would be messed up.

Follow the basic guide lines of stretching an image and you won't go wrong and also, there are many ways to boost color without being destructive so I encourage you to investigate them.