M42 - Orion Nebula. Probably the first DSO people try to image, so who am I to argue This has definitely inspired me to practice this more... I feel some spending coming on... My poor wallet
Wow, its so beautiful! I love images like this, they just blow my mind... Please keep us updated with your work!
Pookeyhead, that's a pretty amazing shot. Definitely post more details on the setup when you have a chance. In general, how far from city lights do you need to get to capture nebulae?
Thanks guys.. for a first attempt, I'm pretty pleased with that. Telescope: Skywatcher 150P 6" Reflector Camera: Nikon D7000 attached to scope with a T Adaptor. Tripod and Mount is a Skywatcher EQ3-2 with RA motor drive. (Right Ascention drive that tracks at the earth rotational speed - Sidereal rate... pronounced sy-deer-ee-al) The shot was 20x 20 second exposures at ISO800, which were stacked in DSS (Deep Sky Stacker). The processing was done in Pixinsight to remove light pollution and vignetting, and the histogram work was done in Photoshop CS5. This was taken from a fairly light polluted location. It wasn't city centre, but a typical suburban location with typical orange low pressure sodium light pollution. To give you an idea of how much processing work is needed on shots from a light polluted sight, here's one of the RAW exposures (subs). You need to stack lots of shorter exposures to bring out detail and keep noise down. If I'd have taken perhaps 100 subs, there would be no noise at all in the finished shot. For almost every sub (or "lights") you need to take a "dark" shot, which is the same length exposure at the same temperature but with the scope covered to accurately map the chip's noise output so DSS can remove it in processing. You also have to take a series of "flats" which is the same exposure with a flat light source over the end of the scope to map the optical vignetting to allow DSS to remove that as well. Ideally you should also take a series of fully dark shots at a fast shutter speed, or "bias" shots to have a truly black reference image. Astro imaging is NOT easy... or quick. That took the best part of 6 hours to shoot and process, and by all accounts, is not a particularly stunning example. Even with the RA drive exposures of more than around 1 minute will show drift. To get very long exposures you need a very expensive guided mount... and dark skies. Onwards and upwards! No pun intended
Thats excellent Pookey. Even with all the post work its still something uniquely created by you. So great job.
Nice. Prizes for the first person to photograph an alternate dimension. Nice photo, must say. Been meaning to get into Astrophotography.
Thanks for all the kind words. I'd like to capture The Pleiades (M45) and get the nebulosity there. Maybe M81 and M82 (Bode's Galaxy and the Cigar Galaxy) in Ursa Major.
question for you. Are you just using the motor drive or did you also add a tracking or goto system to keep it in focus. I ask this since as you know i have the same telescope and would love to try my hand at it. (we have some real dark places outside of my city.
Just motor. Goto has nothing to do with tracking, GOTO systems merely slew the scope around, align it and find things. GOTO will not help with guiding. By focus, I assume you mean keeping it locked in the frame rather than how sharp it is? I used no auto guiding.. just the motors. If you polar align the scope ( I also have the polar scope for the EQ3-2) you'll get around 1 minute to 2 minutes of exposure from the RA motor. If you need more than that, it's time for a new mount (and guiding system and guide scope) that can auto guide for you.
Makes me miss being able to see the stars . I have really bad night blindness now so I can only see a few of the very brightest stars after looking very hard which is sad because I remember looking at all the stars when I was younger with my dad pointing out the major constellations. Great image though. Makes you marvel how large the universe really is when you realise that the 'dust' you see is actually millions of stars.
