Whilst preparing to record the 5 brighter satellites of Uranus, I thought I’d see what the ASI174MM and TeleVue x2 Powermate (2”) could pull out of the Trapezium cluster.
I captured a few AVI’s and selected the best to create a composite showing the main stars of this famous cluster. The final image is a blend of 200 frames (at 300ms) and 50 frames (at 5 secs). The effective focal length was 4320mm at F24.
I have also included a reference image (and animation) from the Hubble Space Telescope for comparison.
Information provided by SkyTools:
The Trapezium Multiple Star System
Magnitude: 6.72
AB: 6.72+7.49 mag, PA 31° Sep 8.80" (2002)
AC: 6.72+5.06 mag, PA 132° Sep 12.70" (2002)
AD: 6.72+6.38 mag, PA 96° Sep 21.20" (2002)
AE: 6.72+11.1 mag, PA 349° Sep 4.90" (2002)
CF: 5.06+11.5 mag, PA 123° Sep 4.00" (1990)
CG: 5.06+16.7 mag, PA 32° Sep 8.60" (1983)
AH: 6.72+15.8 mag, PA 178° Sep 7.90" (1889)
Cambridge Double Star Atlas showpieces (v2) Group: aka theta-1 ORI
This stunning multiple star lies right at the centre of the Orion Nebula M42. It's the middle star of the Sword of the Hunter. Its name, the Trapezium, is not stolen. Four gems twinkle in an attractive tiny area, recent products in the gas and dust cloud. Lots of faint stars in the surrounding area also are physically involved, all of them are highly young and unstable lights, less than 100 000 years old. The Trapezium was first sketched in 1656, and first photographed in 1880. Also try to spot the other doubles in this region, like Theta 2, Iota and Struve 747
Thanks Rick, Col, Marc, Colin & Mike and Trish, I appreciate your comments.
The ASI174MM has 5.86 um pixels, so I’ll try the ASI120MM with its 3.75um pixels next time the seeing is good, as that should increase the on-screen separation by placing more pixels between the components of the Trapezium stars.
I want to try lots of short exposures next time as well.
