M42 taken at DSC 30 Nov - 1 Dec 2013

[The Thing]

M42 The Orion Nebula. Taken at Blacklands Farm Campsite. 16 of 21 x 300s ISO800.

Meade LX90 8" UHTC with Baader Alan Gee II Telecompressor, Astronomik CLS-CCD clip filter, Canon 1000Da, Brightstar OAG, QHY5L-II Mono, HEQ5 Pro.
EQMOD, PHD2, AstroPhotography Tool, Astrotortilla, Cartes Du Ciel.
Processed in Deep Sky Stacker only. I had a go at post processing in Star Tools but didn't like result - I'll have another go though as there is plenty of depth in the data as the sky was very transparent (unlike the Amaretto!).

Click image for full size version.

[MarkH]

That's really lovely Duncan.

[JohnP]

Nice Dunc - need to take a few shorter exposures for the core...How did the new guide cam perform...

[Fay]

well done Duncan one of your best if you can sort the core

[The Thing]

Nice Dunc - need to take a few shorter exposures for the core...How did the new guide cam perform...

See the guide cam thread.

Yes to the core issue. Amaretto intervened I might paint them in when I add a tree and a house to make it a proper astro image

[mickw]

Very nice Duncan, looks like the kit is coming together well

[The Thing]

Very nice Duncan, looks like the kit is coming together well

Thanks Mick (and the rest of you). It's taken many years of faffing and failing, but yes it's finally doing what it all is intended to do, capture photons effectively. Now I need to spend the next few years getting the processing right!

[Carole]

Very nice Duncan, one of your best, ditto to the comments on the core, but you can always do that at a later date.

Carole

[Ivor]

Looking good Duncan. Is the core actually saturated or could you pull the data out of with IRIS?

[Delphine]

super image

Delphine

[The Thing]

Looking good Duncan. Is the core actually saturated or could you pull the data out of with IRIS?

Good question. This one is processed in DSS only. I did try processing the raw DSS stack in StarTools which pulled out all sorts of detail but I didn't really like the result, I'll have to get more familiar with the effects of each of it's tools. I am going to stack it in IRIS and do some stretching etc. to see what I can get out. I am pretty sure the core is saturated out so I haven't checked.

[julian]

Very nice image.
p.s. The Amaretto and cider was good.