20210925 06:00 - M42 - The Orion Nebula - Making a test shot between the trees, the full moon and the morning glow …
What’s in the picture(s)
M42 (ORI) - The Orion Nebula -
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orion_NebulaQuote “The Orion Nebula (also known as Messier 42, M42, or NGC 1976) is a
diffuse nebula situated in the
Milky Way, being south of
Orion's Belt in the
constellation of Orion. It is one of the brightest
nebulae and is visible to the
naked eye in the night sky. It is 1,344 ± 20
light-years away and is the closest region of massive
star formation to
Earth”What was the experience
Last week, by chance there were a couple of Clear Skies in a row. The scopes were programmed to image the DSOs I had on my little list. Hauling in data in advance of this week … because even Clear Skies cannot beat the passion for spending the time with friends 😍 for my birthday 🎂🥂.
On the last morning at 6am, morning glow was starting to seep through, but I just had to take these quick test-shots of M42. The nearly full moon was too close to Orion to make this ‘for real’. The nebula is also still too late in the morning, too low on the horizon for me, barely clipping the trees (I had to crop about 1/3 of the image), but I wanted to prepare myself for when the time will be right in about a month or two.
Only 5 subs of 300s, 25min integration time in total, before the morning glow really was burning out the sky, but this is already giving a glimpse of what is to come. I now know I will need to be careful not to over-expose the core 😉
Happy with what I’ve learned 🤩
How it was done
Scope: TS-94EDPH APO (FL 414mm / 517mm with 0.8x corrector)
Mount: SkyWatcher EQ6R-Pro
Camera: ASI2600MC Pro
Guiding: @zwoasi OAG, ASI290MM, ASIAIR Pro + dither
Filter: Optolong L-Extreme
Resolution: 1,87”/pixel, FoV 235’
Moon: 84%(-), Bortle 5/6 SQM 19.60
Photons: Gain 100 -10c 300s 5x
Darks 30x, Flats 30x
Processing: PixInsight (Mac)
What have I learned from this
Doing quick processing on this test shot, before I start processing all the other data of the DSOs captured last week (5 DSOs in the backlog 😉) The image is a bit too grainy because of the lack of integration time. With only 5 subs, background/walking noise is clearly visible. But I’m happy with this result out of only 25 min.
These last months have learnt me to watch out for too long exposures, make sure you dither, use flats. This little test shot is helping me to understand what range of exposures I will need for M42. Short enough, as to not over-expose the trapezium, long enough to get the gas-clouds fanning out into space.
Pretty soon, everyone will be starting to image M42. I hope I will be ready to join the hunt … 😍
Clear Skies everybody! 🤩✨🔭
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