More Orion

I haven't taken any new data since the Burren Starparty in September : angry: . I am still looking back at some frames that I decided to do nothing with when I took them earlier this Year (too much haze, poor tracking or just single shots etc...)
This shot of Orion is a single 3 minute exposure at F4 and ISO 1600 tracked on a Polarie at 105mm which is about 160mm on the crop frame camera. You can make out the Witchhead on the upper right of the frame.

www.flickr.com/photos/7703127@N07/15823178540/

I wonder is it possible to take an image of the Trapezium stars in M43?

Perhaps that would be a major challenge.

Aubrey.

It would take a fairly long lens and some good tracking

Hi Gents, yes John I can see the outline of the witch head alright, I have never imaged that myself, It's weird seeing orion upside down :rolleyes: did you use a soft focus lens? I like the large stars especially Rigel.

It's a challenge alright with the trapezium, small tight area, bright nebula. You would ideally image it through a scope of say f10-f14 with really good tracking ideally auto guiding. Here is my shot of that area through my Willima optics FLT from a few years ago

Keith.

I am not so sure that good tracking would be such a big deal. The core area of M42 is so bright that very short exposures are called for to get the trapezium.

To get the trapezium I usually end up doing subs of no more than 10 Seconds in RGB