Camera Labs

Hello everyone, the Orion Nebula, or M42 as it's technically known, is one of the most popular targets of astrophotographers, so to accompany our thread on 'your best moon shots', I thought it would be fun to have one for your best M42 shots!

As always, please state your equipment, exposures and processing techniques.

Images of the surrounding regions are also allowed here, such as the Horsehead.

Please note, this thread is not for asking questions - we now have a separate thread for that - thanks!

COmments and Questions at http://www.cameralabs.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=26336

Gordon

Kit: Unmodified 7D, 100-400L at 400mm, 14x60s f/8 ISO800, Astrotrac
Process: DSS, lots of random Photoshop stuff, cropped.

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Canon DSLRs: 7D, 5D2, 1D, 600D, 450D full spectrum, 300D IR mod
Lenses: EF 35/2, 50/1.8, 85/1.8, 135/2+SF, 28-80 V, 70-300L, 100-400L, TS-E 24/3.5L, MP-E 65, EF-S 15-85 IS
3rd party: Zeiss 2/50 makro, Samyang 8mm fisheye, Sigma 150 macro, 120-300 f/2.8 OS, Celestron 1325/13
Tinies: Sony HX9V.

OK here's mine:



Kit

NEQ6 Pro Mount
250p DS Reflector
Finder-Guider with Atik Titan
Guided using PHD
6 * 600s Subs, 4 * 600s Darks, Bias but no Flat Frames
Stacked in DSS and tweaked in PS

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Lee Diggle
My Astronomy Blog | My Photography Gallery

Here's my unworthy effort



Something in excess of 40-hours total exposure using everything from two minutes to half an hour per sub. One shot colour SXVF-M25C [6 megapixel] cooled CCD, narrowband H-alpha and also data taken using an R72 filter. Sky 90 refractor (90mm object lens) 405mm focal length with the reducer corrector, piggybacked on a wedge mounted Celestron Nexstar C11 GPS Schmidt-Cassegrain acting as the guide scope (yes perverse). SXV guide camera which bolts into the M25C and Maxim DL for guiding. Data acquired by Greg Parker at the New Forest Observatory and processed by Noel Carboni in Florida U.S.A. using his commercially available Astro-Tools.

I'll see if I can dig out a Horsehead image.

Greg

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Nexstar 11 GPS, 2 x Sky 90, M25C, MaximDL, Photshop CS3, Noel Carboni's Photoshop actions, 7 foot Pulsar fibreglass dome, Canon 40D, 100mm macro lens, 28-200mm zoom lens, 17-55mm f#2.8 zoom lens, 100-400mm zoom lens, 1.4x converter, 2x converter.
http://www.newforestobservatory.com/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/12801949@N02/

Managed to dig out a Horsehead picture here:



This is over 60-hours of total exposure time taken on the Sky 90 refractor and is a two-framer covering about 3.5 x 3.33 degrees. This image shows the Horsehead nebula together with the three Belt Stars of Orion - Alnitak, Alnilam and Mintaka (Alnitak is the one next to the Horsehead). As you can see the region also contains blue reflection nebulae as well as the usual red emitting Hydrogen (H-alpha). Image taken using the same kit and filters as above but with one addition - I also took H-Beta narrowband data (blue-green) which added a lot of subtle detail to the image. As before, data acquisition by Greg Parker at the New Forest Observatory and imaging processing by Photoshop guru Noel Carboni in Florida U.S.A.

Greg

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Nexstar 11 GPS, 2 x Sky 90, M25C, MaximDL, Photshop CS3, Noel Carboni's Photoshop actions, 7 foot Pulsar fibreglass dome, Canon 40D, 100mm macro lens, 28-200mm zoom lens, 17-55mm f#2.8 zoom lens, 100-400mm zoom lens, 1.4x converter, 2x converter.
http://www.newforestobservatory.com/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/12801949@N02/

Amazing levels of details in both Greg, but I particularly like the horsehead region one as there's just so much going on. Every time I look I find something new!

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Canon DSLRs: 7D, 5D2, 1D, 600D, 450D full spectrum, 300D IR mod
Lenses: EF 35/2, 50/1.8, 85/1.8, 135/2+SF, 28-80 V, 70-300L, 100-400L, TS-E 24/3.5L, MP-E 65, EF-S 15-85 IS
3rd party: Zeiss 2/50 makro, Samyang 8mm fisheye, Sigma 150 macro, 120-300 f/2.8 OS, Celestron 1325/13
Tinies: Sony HX9V.

Thank you Popo The Horsehead is one of my top 10 favourites (along with the M42/Running Man).
Greg

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Nexstar 11 GPS, 2 x Sky 90, M25C, MaximDL, Photshop CS3, Noel Carboni's Photoshop actions, 7 foot Pulsar fibreglass dome, Canon 40D, 100mm macro lens, 28-200mm zoom lens, 17-55mm f#2.8 zoom lens, 100-400mm zoom lens, 1.4x converter, 2x converter.
http://www.newforestobservatory.com/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/12801949@N02/

A very early original Hyperstar/H9C (1.4 Megapixel one-shot colour CCD) image of just the Running Man nebula who is running just above M43 in Orion.

Greg

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Nexstar 11 GPS, 2 x Sky 90, M25C, MaximDL, Photshop CS3, Noel Carboni's Photoshop actions, 7 foot Pulsar fibreglass dome, Canon 40D, 100mm macro lens, 28-200mm zoom lens, 17-55mm f#2.8 zoom lens, 100-400mm zoom lens, 1.4x converter, 2x converter.
http://www.newforestobservatory.com/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/12801949@N02/

Suppose I should have posted this here... copied from another thread.



4 March 2011. 23 subs of 30s. unmodified 450D, Canon EF 300mm f/2.8 at f/2.8 ISO400. Old data re-processed with PixInsight. I've never got the running man so clear myself, but he's still hiding in the noise so I can't bring him out further than this. Can't wait to have another go at imaging this one!

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Canon DSLRs: 7D, 5D2, 1D, 600D, 450D full spectrum, 300D IR mod
Lenses: EF 35/2, 50/1.8, 85/1.8, 135/2+SF, 28-80 V, 70-300L, 100-400L, TS-E 24/3.5L, MP-E 65, EF-S 15-85 IS
3rd party: Zeiss 2/50 makro, Samyang 8mm fisheye, Sigma 150 macro, 120-300 f/2.8 OS, Celestron 1325/13
Tinies: Sony HX9V.

A close up of the Belt region - this is actually different data from the 2-frame image shown above:

Greg

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Nexstar 11 GPS, 2 x Sky 90, M25C, MaximDL, Photshop CS3, Noel Carboni's Photoshop actions, 7 foot Pulsar fibreglass dome, Canon 40D, 100mm macro lens, 28-200mm zoom lens, 17-55mm f#2.8 zoom lens, 100-400mm zoom lens, 1.4x converter, 2x converter.
http://www.newforestobservatory.com/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/12801949@N02/

Still love those white-ish splodges of erm... dashes of spilt galactic milk?

Composing around the belt region is artistically challenging without the attention grabbing flame and horsehead to one end.

On that note, has anyone tried a closeup of the horsehead? That's definitely on my to do list but I'll need some significant gardening work before I can seriously consider that! I really want to have another go at Orion in general, but where's the clear skies this year?

_________________
Canon DSLRs: 7D, 5D2, 1D, 600D, 450D full spectrum, 300D IR mod
Lenses: EF 35/2, 50/1.8, 85/1.8, 135/2+SF, 28-80 V, 70-300L, 100-400L, TS-E 24/3.5L, MP-E 65, EF-S 15-85 IS
3rd party: Zeiss 2/50 makro, Samyang 8mm fisheye, Sigma 150 macro, 120-300 f/2.8 OS, Celestron 1325/13
Tinies: Sony HX9V.

Still in Orion and between the Horsehead and Barnard's Loop we have the reflection nebula M78:

Greg

_________________
Nexstar 11 GPS, 2 x Sky 90, M25C, MaximDL, Photshop CS3, Noel Carboni's Photoshop actions, 7 foot Pulsar fibreglass dome, Canon 40D, 100mm macro lens, 28-200mm zoom lens, 17-55mm f#2.8 zoom lens, 100-400mm zoom lens, 1.4x converter, 2x converter.
http://www.newforestobservatory.com/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/12801949@N02/

And here is M78 in relation to Barnard's Loop:

Greg

_________________
Nexstar 11 GPS, 2 x Sky 90, M25C, MaximDL, Photshop CS3, Noel Carboni's Photoshop actions, 7 foot Pulsar fibreglass dome, Canon 40D, 100mm macro lens, 28-200mm zoom lens, 17-55mm f#2.8 zoom lens, 100-400mm zoom lens, 1.4x converter, 2x converter.
http://www.newforestobservatory.com/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/12801949@N02/

Running Man all data added by cybermystic, on Flickr

I just used Registar to put together everything I had on the Running Man region including some recent Hyperstar III data (5 x 1,000 second subs). Total is well over 80 hours of exposure time. Reason for 8-spiked stars is that different datasets had different spike orientations.

Greg

_________________
Nexstar 11 GPS, 2 x Sky 90, M25C, MaximDL, Photshop CS3, Noel Carboni's Photoshop actions, 7 foot Pulsar fibreglass dome, Canon 40D, 100mm macro lens, 28-200mm zoom lens, 17-55mm f#2.8 zoom lens, 100-400mm zoom lens, 1.4x converter, 2x converter.
http://www.newforestobservatory.com/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/12801949@N02/

Horsehead nebula region - composite image by cybermystic, on Flickr

Here's the Horsehead nebula region - this one's a composite. Used very old (original) Hyperstar data taken with an H9C camera (3-framer) together with more recent Sky 90/M25C data. Combined the 2 datasets in Registar which can handle data from systems working at different focal lengths - amazingly powerful piece of software!!
Greg

_________________
Nexstar 11 GPS, 2 x Sky 90, M25C, MaximDL, Photshop CS3, Noel Carboni's Photoshop actions, 7 foot Pulsar fibreglass dome, Canon 40D, 100mm macro lens, 28-200mm zoom lens, 17-55mm f#2.8 zoom lens, 100-400mm zoom lens, 1.4x converter, 2x converter.
http://www.newforestobservatory.com/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/12801949@N02/