This is my attempt to get a picture of M42 in H-alpha light.
It was made using a Skyglow filter which passes a band of light between 470 nm and 530 nm
(the blue-green part of the spectrum) and everything longer than 640 nm. I added a
Parkes No.21 filter, which is orange and blocks the 470-530 nm light. Thus only light
of wavelength >640 nm passed to the camera. The infra-red part was blocked by the
usual IR-blocking filter. The major light emitted by M42 in this region is that emitted
by Hydrogen gas (at 656 nm). The stars, of course emit at all wavelengths.
Date and Time
18th December 2003 00:24 to 00:40 UT
Camera
Modified ToUcam 840K
Telescope
LX200 with 0.33 focal reducer
Capture
K3CCDTools. 1/33, 1/25, 1, 2, 5, 10 sec exposures, 71% gain
Processing
K3CCDTools. Each avi stacked and saved in png format.
Further adjustments of gamma and brighness, and unsharp masking in PhotoImpact.
Noise reduction in NeatImage. Home Back to DSOs