M42 14th November 2004Home

This is my third attempt to picture M42, the Great Nebula in Orion.   At last I think I am getting the hang of combining multiple exposures in a single picture.   It was imaged with my LX200 on 14th November 2004 starting at 00:04 UT.   I captured 100 frames with exposures of 1/50th and 1/25 sec, and 20 frames at 1, 1.5, 3, 5, 10, 20, 40 sec.
Some of the outer reaches of the nebula seen in the 40-sec exposures have faded in the combined picture, and I have had to cut some off because of a failure to overlap the shorter exposures correctly. This extra detail can be seen in the mosaic of two 40-sec exposures displayed at the bottom of this page.  That picture is also enhanced by an unsharp mask (factor 40, radius 10 in PhotoImpact).
These pictures also represent my first serious attempts to use my self-modified Toucam 840K.  For details of these modifications see here.
Date and Time 14th November 2004 between 00:04 and 01:15 UT
Camera SC1-modified Toucam 840K
Telescope LX200 with 0.33 focal reducer and Orion broadband Skyglow filter.
Capture K3CCDTools. High gamma, high saturation, 50% gain,
exposures 1/50, 1/25, 1, 1.5, 3, 5, 10, 20, 40 sec
Processing K3CCDTools. 20 frames stacked.
Registax. Nine images aligned and stacked.
PhotoImpact. Unsharp mask radius 10 factor 30.

This is the mosaic of two 40-sec exposures assembled with iMerge.  The centre of the nebula is grossly over-exposed, but the extraordinary extent of the nebula is evident.  Part of M43 is visible in the top, left-hand corner.

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