M42 is back

[multiweb (Marc)]

3 subs stacked on M42 before dawn - got light too quickly by the time it cleared my roof over the east. so only 3x1min celestron 5" QHY8 autoguided with PHD ED80 on G11.

http://www.multiweb.com.au/astro/M42.jpg

[Matty P (Matt)]

Great capture Marc and for only 3 subs you've done a great job. I'm looking forward to when M42 rises in the night sky.

Very well done.

[gregbradley]

That's very good.

If you could do some flats it would improve it further as you can see some dust donuts in spots.

Greg.

[TrevorW]

Nice shot, what post processing was done

Cheers

[leon]

Nice going Marc, yep, can't wait for M42 to get a bit higher, always the highlight of the year.

Leon

[AlexN]

Im considering holding out on testing out my QHY8 for a couple more weeks untill I can get the IC434 + B33 + M42 + M43 in one widefield .

Great shot Marc, especially for only 3 mins data! Very cool.

[Bassnut (Fred)]

Marc, very nice indeed. M42 has been done to death, but your composition is just a bit different, top work.

[multiweb (Marc)]

Thank you all for the kind words and comments.

Originally Posted by gregbradley

That's very good.

If you could do some flats it would improve it further as you can see some dust donuts in spots.

Greg.

Thanks Greg. Yep - totally agree . Flats are still a bit of a problem for me. I can't do proper ones. Too dark or too light. Getting there though.

Originally Posted by TrevorW

Nice shot, what post processing was done

Cheers

Thansk Trevor. I stacked the three subs in CCD stack, mean combine then off to photoshop [CS3]. Tweaked the levels then run one pass of Noiseware Professional [night scene] to get rid of most of the noise. Then I duplicated the layer, run a high pass filter 5.5 and blended back at 30% in overlay mode. I also used the shadow/highlight to tone down bright areas and bring up dark ones.

Originally Posted by AlexN

Im considering holding out on testing out my QHY8 for a couple more weeks untill I can get the IC434 + B33 + M42 + M43 in one widefield .

Great shot Marc, especially for only 3 mins data! Very cool.

Thanks Alex. You'll love the camera. It's fun and easy to use.