A forgiving imaging companion (and first light...)

Hi all,

I haven't been imaging as much as I'd like, as I had set aside my faithful imaging companion (my FS102) in favor of a promised, sexier imaging companion. Well, that companion has so far not lived up to its promise. Its maker has promised that it will be repaired, but in the meantime I have reactivated my original companion. Thank goodness it is a most forgiving partner.

At the same time, I got meself some new gear to play with. Oddly enough, the curse of new equipment decided to let it slide and gave me a clear night to play with it. I mosied over to a friend's dark sky site a couple of nights ago.

I was almost foiled by focus issues (as in, I needed extensions!). Fortunately, we were able to rig a setup that enabled me to get into focus.

Here is M42 in narrowband

SII/Ha/OIII
Trapezium exposures: 3 x 1 minute through each filter
Outer regions: 4 x 5 minutes through each filter
Takahashi FS102 on an EM200 mount
SBIG STL-6303 with Astrodon Ha/SII/OIII filters (first light!)

Captured, calibrated and combined in MaximDL. Processed in Photoshop CS.

For whatever reason, IrFanView does not do the colors of this justice. A full-sized crop with better showing of the color can be seen here:

http://members.nuvox.net/~on.aunt/DSO/M42Narrow.jpg

Enjoy,
Eric

Attached Image:

Thats excellent Enrico. You beat me to it as I too have gotten a narrowband filter set. Although my skies are not as kind as yours.

Nice!

Tom

As an imager might be accustomed to doing, I went back and looked at my original image and played around with Levels and Curves and color balance. I kinda thought "Whoa!" with the results. I hope you like the newer version:

http://members.nuvox.net/~on.aunt/DSO/M42NarrowNew.jpg

Eric

LOVELY!
First time I see M42 in these colors... quite beautiful & different from what we "normally" get around here...


Thanks for sharing Enrico, and keep it up!


Happy Holidays!