First M42 - Still Learning NINA

[Doogs38 (Alex)]

Imaging under a full moon was an 'experience' but in the name of science (or something ), I was determined to try a few NINA things like filter offsets and a multi-target sesh. NINA worked well but my 47 Tuc and Horsey will never be seen in public; the Antlia RGB Ultra filter was no match for the full moon which left awkward gradients that I couldn't fix, yech Buuuuut my quick'n'dirty M42 was kinda semi-respectable for about 50 mins of 60s subs.

SW120ED, ASI294MC, Antlia Ha-Oiii filter. Stacked in APP (with mild drizzle) and processed in PI: DBE>SPCC>BX>NX>SX>GHS (nebula & stars done separately)>HDRMT>LHE>curves/colours/sat>background enhance>combine neb & stars in pixelmath>Photoshop for tonal adjustments.

Thanks for looking. Alex

[Bodon (Steve)]

Lovely photo Alex!

[AstroViking (Steve)]

Indeed, a very well done image. Plenty of detail to be seen, with a beautifully restrained palette. Top marks.

[Dave882 (David)]

Fantastic! Love the detail through the dust clouds and also well controlled core. Great work

[Rusty2]

Wow , that's just so beautiful !

[carlstronomy (Carl)]

Really nice image, great detail for such a short amount of subs.

Very sweat

[Doogs38 (Alex)]

Thanks folks, I appreciate the feedback :-) Updated image with an additional 130mins of 60s subs; still using the ALP-T Ha-Oiii filter. Applied a light HOO palette and hence the bluer core. Other than that the changes are subtle ... slightly nicer colour (IMHO), more detail in the gas/dust clouds and less noise. I'll have one more go at M42 using my new ALP-T Hb-Sii filter and then have another go in Dec with my mono cam and 82ED. Alex

[Doogs38 (Alex)]

I managed to get some Hb & Sii data (Antlia Hb-Sii NB filter) a few weeks ago but forgot about it. Since the weather is not conducive to astro atm (and hasn't been for a few weeks), I jumped into PI and had a crack at a SHO-ish version. This is not a brilliant image - only sharing for fun - I need a bunch of short subs to allow a HDR image to be produced and also produce proper, clean looking stars especially in the bright core region. I'll chalk up this attempt at M42 as a learning experience and will tackle it 'properly' over Xmas with a mono cam and with a wider field 82ED refractor ... and a gin (or two) in my hand Alex

[doug mc]

Gorgeous

[triplej3 (Jordo)]

looks really good (: