cosmic stone
This image represents a milepost for me. I started my journey in astrophotography just under a year ago with my first star tracker, and M42 was one of the first images I took. With one clear night during a cloudy Seattle winter, I made the drive out of the city for another try before Orion disappears until next winter.
The idea for this image was to try to showcase this beautiful tumultuous region in its true colours - the red hues of HA, the blue-violet from the massive Type-O stars in the Trapezium, and the brown interstellar dust engulfing the region.
I used my new Newtonian for this image (still much to tweak and adjust and it's very much a work in progress) and while I had some focus drift issues and perhaps imperfect collimation, I think the overall image turned out acceptable. I only managed about 2.5 hours of imaging on the target before it got too low in the sky. Unfortunately, a nearby yard unexpectedly turned on its flood lights and this caused some loss in contrast, as well as some stray reflections in the image. Lights from passing cars, said focus errors, and occasional wind gusts led to a total of 120 min of useable frames.
- Photographed 05 March 2024
- Clear, -3C, some wind, ~bortle 3-4
- GSO 6" f4 Newtonian, Televue Paracorr 2
- IMX571 OSC, Gain 0, 120s
- Total integration 120 minutes
- iOptron HAE29, Askar 32mm f4 Guide
- DSS, Siril, Photoshop
This image represents a culmination of sorts of many things I've worked on in the past year, lots of planning and weather watching, but also still has many flaws which I can still improve in many ways in both capture and process. I hope you enjoy the image as much as I did creating it.
forest heart
little coral
mossy jewel