M42- Ha

[richardo (Rich)]

Yeah I know, another one.. but when you're this bright and there's nothing but cloud, and wind coming in from the south east in gusts... and you just want to remember how it feels to get some data...
well it's obvious... aint it!
Plus it is a lovely object...

As I guess we're all experiencing our 'unusual' weather for this time of year, so no use me complaining...

This was taken over two nights.. quite depressing considering I was given about an hours worth of a hole on each... pretty fuzzy even when the clouds parted

Just adding to the other M42's for comparison.
Nothing special.

http://www.baytop-observatory.com/cc...cts/m42_Ha.htm

Lets hope La Nina takes a hike soon.
Thanks for looking
All the best
Rich

[telemarker (Keith)]

Great image. Good round stars all over and lovely contrast in the nebulosity. I must say I do like the bright core in this one, unusual these days . Looks like you're enjoying the new camera, too bad we're all photon starved ATM.

Keith

[multiweb (Marc)]

Top shot Rich. At that FL, truly a great effort. You're not wrong. Get anything you can while you can. Hard to place a bet on a clear moonless night lately. Top work.

[richardo (Rich)]

Thanks Keith.
Yeah, I did think about the Trapezium and doing shorter subs to mask it in... but I had a few subs where cloud dimmed things, so I used these instead.

Although the Trapezium stars aren't really noticeable, the immediate area while not defined sort of fits in...

Yes I do like this camera for sure.... not too big, not to small. Downloads take only a sec or two. Nice and light, no stress on the focuser.
Now that I have the 2" filters in place, I'm certainly happy not to have to deal with the vignetting as with the 1.25".

Yes, if only we could have a few evenings in a row to satisfy our lack of imaging time.....
I guess like all things in this hobby, we must wait..

Thanks for having a look and commenting.

All the best
Rich

[mill (Martin)]

Looking good Richardo, and the trap,bwahh, who cares, a couple of hours a month has to be taken advantage of

[richardo (Rich)]

Originally Posted by multiweb

Top shot Rich. At that FL, truly a great effort. You're not wrong. Get anything you can while you can. Hard to place a bet on a clear moonless night lately. Top work.

Hey Marc, feels like an age since I last published an image. AND, IT WAS!!
Thanks for the comments, was good to actually have something to mess with in PS!
Yes, the weather... mmmm hell of a lot easier to pick a Melbourne cup winner than one of them there clear, moonless nights pard!!

Originally Posted by mill

Looking good Richardo, and the trap,bwahh, who cares, a couple of hours a month has to be taken advantage of

Thanks Martin!
Yeah, who needs those pesky little stars anyway
Hopefully be able to add more.... maybe wishful thinking a couple of hours a month.. waaahhhh
But seriously, I'd love to nail it as I haven't imaged it for a few years now.

So fingers and toes crossed guys, let us prayhttp://www.iceinspace.com.au/forum/....ilies/prey.gif
Let there be star lighthttp://www.iceinspace.com.au/forum/....lies/windy.gif http://www.iceinspace.com.au/forum/....es/eeksign.gif

All the best
Rich

[Peter Ward]

Beautiful resolution! ...which is a bit of a curse as there is just a tad of 9-3:00 o'clock elongation which would be invisible in lesser
(ie stars more bloated) scopes.

...one heck of a nice mirror for sure.

[richardo (Rich)]

Originally Posted by Peter Ward

Beautiful resolution! ...which is a bit of a curse as there is just a tad of 9-3:00 o'clock elongation which would be invisible in lesser
(ie stars more bloated) scopes.

...one heck of a nice mirror for sure.

Thanks Peter!
Yes, Royce's a fine optical perfectionist that's for sure. Over the years I've had this scope built, I have always been impressed with the fine resolving capabilities of this mirror.

The elongation I've noticed just recently even to short subs... Collimation is spot, I always use my Cats Eye Auto collimator and check before a sesh. So I fear due to some things I have had done recently, (don't ask) the adjustable face plate on the camera is the culprit being a nits nacker out to the chip face.... again! Just needs a tweak.
So if and when the night sky improves, it's the nest little job I need to do.

Yes, always something!

All the best
Rich

[gregbradley]

Whoa, engines in reverse we're gonna crash!

Nice closeup of M42.

Yes little things can easily go wrong with our setups. Chip not square is one I have also had recently. More of an issue the bigger the chip.

Greg.

[strongmanmike (Michael)]

Hmmm? very interesting rendition there Rich ...I'm thinking it is a bit toooo bright though . After opening it and viewing it at 75% screen zoom so it fits on my screen in one go, it takes on a broad brush painting sort of look ? I would go for a bit more fine structure and play with the shadows and highlights a tad more, it looks like you have flattened the highlights a bit? Just ideas, still a nice shot mate and I jknow it was only a desperation driven outing ...boy do I know how that feels

That said, aint she a beauty and I agree with Peter, M42 is probably one of the hardest objects to do a good job on.

We don't see you around here very often, where do you hang out most of the time?

Mike

[richardo (Rich)]

Originally Posted by gregbradley

Whoa, engines in reverse where gonna crash!

Nice closeup of M42.

Yes little things can easily go wrong with our setups. Chip not square is one I have also had recently. More of an issue the bigger the chip.

Greg.

Thanks Greg !!
These things certainly can be, well fun to say the least!
If it aint hardware, software's gonna get ya!
Like me the other night, Focus max didn't want to do a V curve.... the original profile didn't want to focus so deleted and started again thinking I'll sort this out... wrong nothing worked that night even after uninstalling, removing any reference to FM from the registery and reloading... wasted three hours and clouds came in. Then last night I did five v curve runs without a hitch, worked straight off the bat... geezz I hate that!

With all the great stuff you have with the new scope, I can imagine things must be fun working through the idiosyncrasies of the software/ hardware.. then as you said, the autoguiding didn't work, and when it's sorted... the clouds roll in..
And when we need to sort stuff out under the stars.... there's no stars
We certainly have the patients of saints!!

Originally Posted by strongmanmike

Hmmm? very interesting rendition there Rich ...I'm thinking it is a bit toooo bright though . After opening it and viewing it at 75% screen zoom so it fits on my screen in one go, it takes on a broad brush painting sort of look ? I would go for a bit more fine structure and play with the shadows and highlights a tad more, it looks like you have flattened the highlights a bit? Just ideas, still a nice shot mate and I jknow it was only a desperation driven outing ...boy do I know how that feels

That said, aint she a beauty and I agree with Peter, M42 is probably one of the hardest objects to do a good job on.

We don't see you around here very often, where do you hang out most of the time?

Mike

Thanks Mike for your comments...
Yeah I know what you're saying as to it looking a wee bit overly bright. I actually liked my first night out image with only 40 mins worth although grainy, the processing came out better. This version with 80 mins was harder to process....just me I think.. I was between the devil and the deep blue sea as to having too much contrast and then not enough.... I need more signal to really push things.... the darker regions are quite chunky but I might have another go at reprocessing to see what I can do.

Yeah I've been hanging on the fence Mike, watching you guys, seeing if you've had better luck with the weather.... a few of the nights that looked ok, I had something on.. which I cursed... haven't commented on anything as I have had nothing really to contribute, but I've been here... also checking out other folks I know around the globe and seeing how they've been getting on weather and imaging wise... seems pretty slow all over at the moment...
Hopefully, things will be on the improve.... can't get much worse

Thanks guys for your comments...
Always appreciated.

All the best for now
Rich