M42/M43/NGC1977

Very nice Paul! The colour is lovely, and such a great target!

Keep them coming.

Keith..

Paul,

Nice result of perhaps the most stunning DSO available to the northern hemisphere. As for the burnt core, M42 is a "nice" example of the wide dynamic range that can exist with a rich subject and I suspect you just got a very good taste to this fact.

When you have a chance, check out the core to see if it is really burnt (values of 255 for each of R, G and or appears to be so just due to the screen stretch.

This part of the sky is very rich with gems .... go for 'em!

A good shot Paul, it shows the nebula shape well.

That looks amazing!

A few questions... (i'm new)


1) I saw mention of Lidl earlier, was this seen through an ETX-70?
2) What camera did you us to take the images?
3) Is the zoom on the camera used aswell as the telscopes view?
4) When you say 30 secs... is that how long each photo was exposed?

Trying to learn as much as I can

Thanks

Thanks all, and thanks for the tips Dave G and Anthony - for me everything here is an experiment - some work and some don't but at least the hit rate seems to be on the way up!

To answer Greg's questions in order....

1) No, sorry, it wasn't done with an ETX70, great little 'scope that it is. The sot was taken with my Meade LXD75 6" Newtonian which was last Xmas special at Lidl and the offer was repeated recently so there's a few of us with these 'scopes. Those of us with working ones seem pretty pleased with them. See my avatar - it's that 'scope.

2) Camera used was a Minolta Dynax 5D - just over 2 years old this was Minolta's last DSLR before they sold the lot over to Sony. It's a 6 million pixel job which has the advantages for astrophotography of having a reasonably low-noise ISO 3200 mode and retains some sensitivity down into the deep reds so that H-alpha nebulae show up well.

3) The camera is mounted at the prime focus of the telescope - there is no eyepiece on the 'scope and no lens, zoom or otherwise, on the camera. The telescope is the camera's lens.

4) Yes, each of the 12 exposures was 30secs - this is a convenience as it's the longest timed exposure the camera is capable of on its own, so it's easy to use a cable release with the drive set to continuous and just get it to reel off a load of exposures. I now have a timer which enables me to specify say 20 exposures of 2 mins each, but I'm still reading the instructions

I'm still trying to learn as much as I can too At the moment I'm a couple of years behind the experts here. Trouble is that when I get better, so do they!

Thanks for that!

I'm still trying to learn as much as I can too Smile At the moment I'm a couple of years behind the experts here. Trouble is that when I get better, so do they!

I can imagine

Well in a way it's a good thing, because you'll always have room for improvement!


I'm still getting my bearings in the shallow end... couple years and i'l be doing the backstroke in the deep end (well I can only hope!)



-Greg