A play with M42

[allan gould]

While seeing what my Ha Lumicon Night sky filter could do on M42 I thought I would capture some colour as well and try an LRGB of the nebula. Had a problem with filter changes and camera rotation but Registar helped. This is just a trial to see if I could do something a bit different before doing a serious attempt.
Comments welcome

[multiweb (Marc)]

Very very nice. The details are very sharp even in the core.

[toryglen-boy (Duncan)]

allan, thats fantastic, a real first class image!

[Scorpius51 (John)]

Allan, if that's just a trial, the mind boggles at what you might produce when you get serious! Well done.

Love to see some imaging details.

[allan gould]

Thanks for the comments guys.
It was a quick and dirty Ha series of 4x5min, 4x1 min and 4x30 sec at 2x2 binning processed in PS to give a blended image to the core. The same with colour at 1x1 binning (same exposure). Then the Ha was pasted into the colour using the Ha as a luminance layer. The luminance layer was stretched and smart sharpened in PS3 and then blended at 50%. Scope used was 127mm ED Apo and QHY8 camera. Flats, bias and flat darks processed in DSS 3.3.2

[Paul Haese]

Looks like you are going to be successful with this idea. The detail is good so now just for some minor equipment control and you will be set.

[Hagar (Doug)]

Very nice Allan, Looks a little sharp but the detail and soft colours make for a very nice image.

[Astrobserver99 (Rob)]

Nice sharp details and nice colour blend. Could use more exposure to smoothen out the edges of of neb?