Forgotten Image: Orion's Belt and Sword

This is an image I took back in Movember 2005 and just got around to processing. It is a stack of 5 10-minute exposures, aligned and combined in Registar using the Median-Mean combine function. All images were shot in RAW and then processed as 16-bit TIFF files until the final step. I wanted to get short exposure for the core of M42, but ran out of time. Note the large amounts of nebulosity throughout the whole image. If you know what to look for, you can see the Horsehead Nebula, M78, M42, and multiple NGC-catalogue nebulae. The camera was mounted on a Kenko SkyMemo mount for the exposures and the camera was a Hutech modified 20D, 135mm f/2L lens @ f/5.6 to reduce CA and ISO 800.

Jeff

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Excellent excellent image! That 135mm L lens is wonderful. Great nebulosity and color. Sharp to the edge too. Keep those coming Jeff. I definitley have to get that lens. I don't know why the bright stars have those spikes but I like them very much that way! What else have you got in your archives? Surprise us.

Best,

Dan

That is a beauty Jeff!!!

Instead of setting up for another shot for the core detail, why not check out Registar- you can blend a detailed core into this photo. The Canon lenses always give a very nice star burst effect.

Ivan

Beautiful Wide Field image Jeff! 8)
Lots of detail & great colors!


Thank you for sharing!

Very nice Jeff.
As you mentioned there is a lot of nebulosity there.


Robert

Nice ! very nice field of view, good colors and lots of nebulosity as you say.

For comparison, here again the same area taken in March 05 with my Canon 20D with the Canon 200mm L lens set at f/4. ISO 800, 20 pictures of 5 minutes each for a total of 1h40min, combined together with Photoshop. The field of view is smaller of course, and the sensitivity to nebulosity is smaller too.
I think the comparison is interesting, and your picture better. :-)

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