I paused on my narrow band M16 for a while (it was hazy last evening) so got a chance at M42 early this morning.
The threads on my Ha filter are still flaky, so I took it out and put in the IR filter, which I wanted to do anyway, since it would catch many more of the tiny stars that are in this star forming region. I'm sorry I can't tell you the total time on the different channels yet, but it was between 10 and 20 minutes with 15sec shots for OIII and 1 minute shots for SII. Then 1sec for IR and .25 sec for the clear filter. I combined things after exposing this morning, and am not completely sure of the procedure - I just wanted a quick and dirty "result" to look at. I did a "midrange brighten" in CCDSoft and then fiddled with brightness and contrast to get something somewhat pleasing on each of the different channels. The color combine in CCDSoft was just moving the sliders until the color looked sort-of ballanced. When I get some time, I will see how I can get some Ha to add. Maybe I can somehow combine SII and IR to get those nice little stars, and use Ha for Green to get that great Hubble pallette that I like so much. And more time to process what I already shot...
Charlie
The threads on my Ha filter are still flaky, so I took it out and put in the IR filter, which I wanted to do anyway, since it would catch many more of the tiny stars that are in this star forming region. I'm sorry I can't tell you the total time on the different channels yet, but it was between 10 and 20 minutes with 15sec shots for OIII and 1 minute shots for SII. Then 1sec for IR and .25 sec for the clear filter. I combined things after exposing this morning, and am not completely sure of the procedure - I just wanted a quick and dirty "result" to look at. I did a "midrange brighten" in CCDSoft and then fiddled with brightness and contrast to get something somewhat pleasing on each of the different channels. The color combine in CCDSoft was just moving the sliders until the color looked sort-of ballanced. When I get some time, I will see how I can get some Ha to add. Maybe I can somehow combine SII and IR to get those nice little stars, and use Ha for Green to get that great Hubble pallette that I like so much. And more time to process what I already shot...
Charlie
Attached Image:
Fort Lewis Observatory: (37.238, -108.052) ~2360m (7744 ft.) elevation.
Darkness - typically 6.5+
Scope - Meade 16" LX200; f6.3 focal reducer
Focus - JMI Smart focus
Camera - SBIG ST-10XE; (~.5"/pixel)
Guiding - AO-8 and/or Meade 5"/DSI/PHD
http://www.fortlewis.edu/observatory
