M42, quite happy with this one.

[Daniel]

Hi All, here's an M42 from last night, have to admit, Im quite happy with this one, my only gripe would be I had to blow out the trapesium a little more than I'd have liked to get it to sit well with the bright nebulosity, might have another process later to try it with duller tones.

image was taken on the 40D on the 120ED with 35x240s ISO 800 for the main nebulosity and 30x 60s ISO 800 for the trapesium.

Just for contrast, i'm also posting my first M42 image (Infact first nebula picture ever) taken in January this year.

[RobertM]

That's pretty impressive Daniel, what filter did you use ?  Also more importantly, what drugs are you on that enable you to able to stay up that late

[Daniel]

Hehehehe, I used the CLS for this, and a Whole lot of coffee!!!!

[Fay]

Really nice Daniel, I'm impressed.

Robert you are funny!

[RobertM]

Only coffee ! wow, now that is impressive

Was it taken from your back garden ?

[Daniel]

Yes, this was taken in my back garden, Actually, as an addiction, crack would probably have been cheaper than astronomy, my life's been totally taken over by this now, can't remember when I got to bed on a cloudless weekend before 7:00am!!!!!

[Fay]

  Don't give us idea's for a cheaper alternative, Daniel!

[JohnP]

That is very nice indeed Daniel & looks very well processed - you have layered the core detail really well to maintain detail - how exactly did you do this...?

John

PS - Still don't like the diffraction spikes though

[Daniel]

Hi John, I did this in 2 passes, one, with long subs one with short, then used a layer mask to blend the 2 together, I also used the short subs to bring out a bit more on M43 aswell. I've blown out the core just a little more than I'd like to have done, but this was so that I wouldn't get that tell-tale dark ring around the core you can sometimes get, I guess once way around this would be to under-process the rest of the image and fit in with that, but id probably need to layer 4 or 5 times to get that.

Daniel
:O)

[MarkS]

Lovely image Daniel, and expertly processed.  The wispiness in the M42 image is excellent and the Running Man nebula has also come out very well.

I don't like those diffraction spikes though.  Personally I think they should be avoided but, if you are really determined to generate them, make sure it's done in a way that makes them sharp: yours give the impression of being field rotated.

It's a stunning result for a DSLR and I'm really looking forward to trying it myself.  Your processing tip is very useful.

Mark

[Tony G]

Daniel,

Just flicking through December's 'Sky at Night' magazine, and please tell me if I'm wrong, but isn't the image above the 'Image of the Month'
and if so, you that bloody quiet.
Anyway if it is congratulations and well done, but if it isn't you can always pretend it is. 

Tony G

PS Lovely image.

[Rocket Pooch]

excellent image, not sure about the spikes there they look odd 

anyway, very good

[Fay]

Very nice image, but agree with Chris, not struck on the spikes