M42 luminosity

There is a grand total of 20 seconds of exposure here, in 0.2sec chunks via CCDSoft. Sorry, but I think processing is @#$%^. I tried to get as many stars near the trapezium as I could, but I think it is really hard! Is there an easier way?

Anyway, this is supposed to be part of my effort going towards a narrow band image that is still a work in progress. When I get some "more better" pieces I can post.

Charlie

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Here is the H-alpha from a few mornings ago. Ten minutes total in 15 sec subs. I do have some more I can try to add in... That will be for another day.

Charlie

misc details...
16" Meade LX200 alt-az
f6.3 focal reducer
SBIG ST-10XE
CS Ha filter
Meade 5"refractor/DSIpro/PHDGuiding
clear dark skies
daytime job... gotta sleep sometime!

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Charlie,
Great images. I really like the Luminosity image. It shows the Trapezium well as well as all the other stars in the vicinity.

Charlie,

Don't be too hard on yourself, this is a fantastic image! M42 is a very bright object - it's *almost* as hard to resolve the stars in M42 as it is to resolve a star near a full Moon. Well, not really, but I hope you get my meaning.

Erc

I think I like the SII better than the Ha picture. This was taken on two different mornings as 30 second and 1 minute exposures for a total of 30 minutes. My first preference is to add everything together, but those central stars start to merge, so I "medianed" three 10 minute sets. I have looked at Astroart and Registax as far as image combining options, but this was done in CCDSoft.

For this B&W display I did a "midrange brighten" and then "adjust brightness and contrast".

I would be curious as to comments on better/worse programs to get more useful mixes. My attempts at just median combining give most of the levels "too low" to have enough gray scale variability, and some of the straight adds end up "too high" and start expanding the bright stars more than I want.

Charlie

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