Ok I know everyone gets bored of M42 images, but it's a challenging target that demands that you think about how you capture and how you process. The vast dynamic range and the sheer size and complexity of the nebulosity draws you back in, and it's a great object to make your own personal yardstick - to compare against previous sessions to see how much you've improved.

This is my best DSO image since I started imaging DSO's exactly 2 months ago.

This image of M42 and NGC1977 was captured on Tuesday night at our semi-dark sky site at Mangrove Mountain Pony Club, on the Central Coast of NSW.

Equipment: Saxon ED80 on EQ6
Camera: Canon 350D (unmodded) with WO 0.8x type II reducer/flattener.
Guiding: Guided wiith a DMK21AF04 through a 80mm f/5 refractor, using PHD.

The image consists of 10x 30s, 10x 60s and 6x 300s exposures, all at ISO800.
No darks were taken on the night, but darks were subtracted using darks from a previous session. No flats.
Processing in ImagesPlus and Photoshop.

I wanted to take more @ 300s, but it was 2am and time to go home

I'm very happy with how it has turned out, but there's still a lot of room for improvement, especially when I inspect the full-size version @ 100% resolution.
- I need better darks
- I need to start taking flats
- The registration isn't great in the corners
- and my deep-space processing skill still need to advance.

But this is my new yardstick - i'll come back and image it again in a few months when I've improved my techniques in capture and processing.

Thanks for looking.

Attached Images

20071114-m42-800px-low.jpg (95.0 KB, 150 views)

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Mike
. mikesalway.com.au - Astronomy and Photography by Mike Salway
. IceInSpace - The Australian Amateur Astronomy Community
. My Bio | My Jupiter 2007 Gallery | My Image Gallery

Awesome!

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That is really a Beaut! Mike, Beautiful colors and a very nice wide shot showing the running man also. Nice presentation also Welldone and Clear Skies

Nice shot, with good color. How much did you stretch the raw exposures on this version of the image?

Robert

Nice photo Mike. Very crisp and clean well done.

Paul

That's the best unmodified DSLR astro photo I've seen.
Very well done.

Rick

Stunning in both colour and dynamic range. a truley wonderful achievement,

Kind regards
Matt

That is beautiful Mike! Thanks for posting.

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Thanks very much for your comments. Rick you're too kind - there are many better than mine, but I'll take your compliment all the same
Robert - there wasn't really a need to stretch the data too much - the histogram was well placed in the raw captures. I added the 6x 300s exposures, did some DDP in ImagesPlus, then some curves and levels in Photoshop.

Thanks

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Mike
. mikesalway.com.au - Astronomy and Photography by Mike Salway
. IceInSpace - The Australian Amateur Astronomy Community
. My Bio | My Jupiter 2007 Gallery | My Image Gallery

Hi Mike , beautiful capture!

Thanks for sharing .

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"The important thing is not to stop questioning. Curiosity has its own reason for existing." - Albert Einstein

"The good life is inspired by love and guided by knowledge " - Bertrand Russell

Hi! Iceman,

Do you have good sky in your area? Any light pollution?

It seems it is impossible for me to take a long shot for more than 1 min. Even I have use the Light Pollution filter. My background will become very bright. Any suggestion for me?

- Televue NP101
- prime focus
- no dark or flat
- 1 min
- Light pollution filter

If I don't use light pollution filter, my image will become the second images.

- Target Comet Holmes
- 30 second


Aw Yong.

Attached Images

	181107_007-web.jpg (51.8 KB, 24 views)
	171107_002-web.jpg (84.8 KB, 19 views)

Ya! I used ISO 1600 with Canon 300D unmodified.

Aw Yong

Try taking many frames and stacking them, all night if necessary. Then you'll have enough signal you can subtract out the sky and still have a good image. You need a lot more time than someone in a dark sky would need but it can be done. Keep your exposure time short enough the object doesn't saturate and the background is less than half full intensity, less if using a 12 bit camera. Also narrow band imaging is virtually immune to light pollution. It limits the targets but is great for emission nebula as well as planetaries.

When it comes to fighting light pollution the added bit depth of a 16 bit CCD has a great advantage over a 12 bit DSLR.

I know an imager who gets great galaxy shots from down town Berlin using this technique but he does use a full 16 bit CCD (black and white).

Rick

Thanks! Rick.. I will try it out.

Aw Yong..

I'm not the Iceman, but I deal with seriously light polluted skies all the time. As RickJ said in his response, you need to take many exposures and combine them. You should also use software tools available in Photoshop and/or PixInsight to address the light pollution in the images.

I took the two images you posted, used PixInsight to flatten the background, then adjusted the histogram so that the peak was just a bit to the right of the far dark end. I did a small curves adjustment to the Holmes image. As you can see, there is detail in the images you have that can be pulled out with the proper tools.

I firmly believe we must always keep looking up and keep imaging no matter where we are, even if we are in the middle of the city.

Clear Skies,

--Andy

P.S., And Mike, this is a great M42 image. Great detail in the nebula, not washed out in the bright areas. Very pretty.

Attached Images

	181107_007_web_ABE_corrected.jpg (51.5 KB, 18 views)
	171107_002_web_ABE_corrected.jpg (76.3 KB, 14 views)

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Thanks! andyschlei, thanks for you help!

Aw Yong.