Absolutely horrible astronomy weather here in Seattle the last few months. Got a hole last night, so opened the roof and got this shot of M42. It was a quick one, clouds moving in. My first good M42 with my new Canon 350D with the IR mod. Sure makes the red colors easy to work with without that pesky IR filter blocking!

Tom
www.eastsideastro.org/observatory

I have a sister in Seattle so I sympathise completely. Good shot. The 'running man' is clearly visible and cograts on the new camera.

Kind regards
Matt

Hi Tom - weather in northern Ohio has been impossible as well. Its been cloudy for weeks.

The exposure on your picture is very good as it seems there are a number of details emerging deep in the nebula. I can almost catch a glimpse of the trapezium. That's rare with pictures of M42. Nice one!

-Veeger

Hi Tom.
Nice capture of M-42 even if it was a fast one great photo. Clear skies to you.
Paul

For a quicky it sure came out really good Tom, I hope it clears up soon.

I was pleased that it turned out so well even for a fairly quick cloud-dodging attempt. The trick I did to pull out the trapesium was to do a few short exposures, then a few longer ones. Then I could tweak it in Photoshop to not overexpose the middle. I just hope I get some more chances to play with this area of the sky this winter. It's one of my favorite targets. I basically got cheated out last winter here in Seattle since it was just as miserable.
I was using my unmodified Canon 10D last year, so my images always came out very blue. This camera is great, I don't have to struggle to pull out some nice red!

Tom
www.eastsideastro.org/observatory

Interesting. I had a windy night a few weeks ago and so experimented with varied exposures of trapezium. I will have to go back and process those images

Kind regards
Matt

I usually throw in a handfull of short exposures to capture the 4 stars in the middle an mix that into the stack. I probably should process them separately and THEN put them in with the longer exposures, but my Photoshop skills lack and it looks cut and pasted!
For now, I use the 'curves' feature to select certain areas and bring them up separately so I don't burn out the middle. Fun stuff!


Tom
www.eastsideastro.org/observatory