Orion Neb

1st proper attempt at trying to get a shot of the Orion Nebula.
I was surprised at how much colour can be gleened from the image.
It always looks ghostly in the scope.
I guess I need longer exposures an maybe to modify the camera
to allow more IR?
I had the ETX in Alt-Az mode and anything over 20-25 sec of an exposure
showed trailing.
I must try it in polar mode to see if its any better.
any tips etc again please!

Frank - you've got the Trapezium there - no mean feat. If your mount only gives you that kind of expsoure duration, just shoot loads of individual images.

From here, the tracking looks good. I'd say a nit of stretching might bring out more of the nebulosity.

Keep it up!

Dave

Good image Frank, it could do with processing in photoshop to bring it out more, put it on a CD and usb stick and I can show you what can be done with it in photoshop in the meeting tonight.
I remember my first shot of this nebula with the 300D and I was amazed at the amount of colour, I didn't think it was possible.

Frank,

You don't say home many exposures this was stacked from?

If this is only one of one then keep shooting.

The background colour noise will reduce the more fames you shoot.

Later,

Jed.

Thanks for the replys.
Yes it's one shot.
I cant remember exactly but about 20 seconds at iso 1600.
Is it a case of taking as many shots and then stacking them?
If so, what software would be best to use?

Dave,
I'll do that so.

Nice shot Frank.

For stacking I use a thing called Rot'n'Stack - very simple, very effective! The point of stacking is that you can remove the noise effetively - noise is random so averages out while the coherent parts of the picture all add up the same way. This then gives you a lot more scope to adjust the image that results in terms of bringing detail out and sharpening - both activities that would increase noise. There's no need to worry about exact alignment of shots as stacking software sorts this out.

Good luck,

Paul.