M42, Yes its that time of year again, well from about 3am.

[Mac]

I'm Back. Hurah.
After spending all night playing at a charity concert, i got home and thought, Nah, too tired.

But i could hear the lack of wind and clouds calling out to me.
So off i set at midnight. by 00:10 i was off and running, well sort off.
Charged the cannon battery, . Note to oneself , Remeber to charge batterys.

Well the night started badly, but i managed to get a few shots.
STILL HAVE THAT WEIRD PROBLEM WITH THE SCOPE. New thread.

Anyway after 6 hours, 15 cups of tea, no foxes, two frogs, the neighbours cat, and Lotti, i finally managed this.




And for the more technically minded here are the details.

Canon 350D.
Stack of 14, (these are just the small jpg's that are saved with the raw, will process the raw later)
LX200GPS 10", with f6.3, Lumicom Light polution filter with inbuilt Ha, Hb & Oiii narrowband filtering.

No darks,
No flats,
No bias,
No guiding,
Exposure details. total time 840s or 14min in old money.

4 * 90's
4 * 30's
6 * 60's

Stacked with deep sky stacker.
Processed with photoshop.
If anyone wants to have a go, here are the stacked files.
Photoshop http://www.macrhon.co.uk/website/gallery/album/astronomy/Raw/m42.psd
Tiff http://www.macrhon.co.uk/website/gallery/album/astronomy/Raw/m42.tif

[Fay]

Mac, I am so glad it's showtime for you again with your new setup. There will be no holding you now. Great shot, have not seen M42 this year yet, probably because there is such a backlog of subjects to do, so you haven't missed anything whil doing your pier, due to adverse weather conditions!

Fay

[JohnP]

Well done Mac - well worth all the effort - a very nice result - you captured this very early in the year - you must have good easterly views.... It'll be at least a few more months before I can see this..

[Mac]

you must have good easterly views

Thats about all i can see.
West is a collection of very large trees,
South is probably the best view,
and north is a hole cut in the trees to see polaris.

[RobertM]

A tricky subject with all that moonlight last night, and with only 14 mins  - well done !

[MarkS]

Wow, Mac, I'm dead impressed you could get M42 so early in the season and with so much moonlight.

[Rocket Pooch]

very very good

[Daniel]

Lovely shot Mac, great to see this come around again, and nice round stars especially considering it was unguided.