Two favourites from Orion - M42 and the Flame Nebula

All, here are my first attempts to capture Orion's Belt and M42 with a piggyback set up using a sigma 70-300mm APO lens and a 300D.
Is there any way I can improve these, as I was limited by exposure time?
Keith..

Orion's Belt: Orions Belt and Flame Nebula, 15th december 2006, stack of 4 shots, ISO1600, F5, 60seconds, Canon 300D with 190mm sigma APO lens.

s56.photobucket.com/albums/g172/Keithg1_...ltFlameNebulaweb.jpg

M42 Orion Nebula : The Orion Nebula 15th December 2006 Single shot Canon 300D, 119mm Sigma APO lens at f4.5, 60 seconds exposure ISO 1600.

s56.photobucket.com/albums/g172/Keithg1_...heOrionNebulaweb.jpg

Looks like you tried bringing up the red in the horsehead image, thus bringing up the background also.
This really does need a long exposure and stacking to bring out, its really faint. I tried it once with poor results.
M42 is also a prime candidate for stacking using differing exposures, otherwise the center gets over exposed.

Keith - I love those wide-field shots. The sky background seems a tad bright in the Orion's belt shot. M42 is super though!

Dave

Lovely images Keith. The first one clearly shows the Flame Nebula and traces of the Horsehead Nebula. Nice!

Hi Keith,

Good images but I think you can see that ISO 1600 brings alot of background noise with it.

Personally I use 400 but I am going to try 800 next good night to see the differance.

Later,

Jed.

Thanks Lads

I think you can see that ISO 1600 brings alot of background noise with it.

Yeah, next time I'll bring it down, as there is too much noise :roll:

Keith..