Its that time of year again - M42

[billdan (Bill)]

Hi everyone,

I had Wednesday off so I stayed up a bit late on Tuesday night and took 55mins of M42, in the form of 55 x 60 sec subs. Tried to keep the centre under control but failed.

Any thoughts on how get rid of the reflection I assume its off the front glass of the camera, is this camera tilt?

It tried the horsehead and Alnitak is worse, its like great big eye in the sky.

Regards
Bill

[FlashDrive (Poppy)]

Bill ..nice photo...lots of color .. I like it

I was out last night with the 10'' Lightbridge looking at M42 also ... and Jupiter ... nice and bright to ..!!

Your not far from me ... 7klm's ... or there abouts .

Flash ..!!

[billdan (Bill)]

Hi Col,

The colours are very pastel and I like them, this is straight out of DSS, over stretched a bit but no other processing.

We are not far from each other, I'm up on a ridge near Oakey-Flat road on 5 acres. Unfortunately too many trees to get an all round view.

I had a quote for $5K to clear what I needed if I were to build an Obs.
Probably won't happen.

Cheers Mate,
should catch up one evening.

[jjjnettie (Jeanette)]

You've got some really nice detail happening there. Great colour too.
The only way to tame the trapezium is to take some 10 sec sub and cunningly layer it onto the image.

[Geoff45 (Geoff)]

Originally Posted by billdan

Hi everyone,

Tried to keep the centre under control but failed.


Regards
Bill

Most of the detail is there: you've just been overzealous with your processing. I did a quick and dirty reprocess of your image just to show that there is more detail, but obviously can't reach its full potential starting with a low res jpg.
I suggest reprocessing the original. You may find some centre detail there.

[Larryp (Laurie)]

Nice image!

[Ross G]

A nice photo Bill.

I like the natural looking colours.

Ross.

[billdan (Bill)]

Thanks everyone for your comments, very helpful and makes a lot of sense.

I am unsure how far to go with stretching and when to call it quits, unless it’s obviously too bright or too dark.
Especially in DSS with that small window to look at, may have to give Nebulosity a go.

That was awesome Geoff what you did with that low res jpg, imagine what you could do with the TIF file.

I’ll give 10sec subs a go JJJ, and see what comes up, DSS will have a field day registering and stacking 300+ subs.

As far as the bright star reflection from the CCD to the front glass goes, it’s not good news, the only fixes are:-

1) reduce exposure time
2) don’t overstretch
3) replace camera front glass with a better anti-reflective coating
4) edit in software ( clone tool in Photoshop)


Cheers
Bill