Ha - 7 Hours (300s Subs)

Lum - 20 Mins (120s Subs)

Red - 40 Mins (120s Subs)

Green - 40 Mins (120s Subs)

Blue - 40 Mins (120s Subs)

Total = 9 Hours 20 mins ish

The Orion Nebula is a diffuse nebula situated in the Milky Way, being south of Orion's Belt in the constellation of Orion. It is one of the brightest nebulae and is visible to the naked eye in the night sky with apparent magnitude 4.0.

Radius: 12 light years

Distance to Earth: 1,344 light years

Magnitude: 4

Age: 3.002 million years

Discovered: 26 November 1610

Coordinates: RA 5h 35m 17s | Dec -5° 23′ 28″

Discoverer: Christiaan Huygens

Sh2-279 is an HII region and bright nebulae that includes a reflection nebula located in the constellation Orion. It is the northernmost part of the asterism known as Orion's Sword, lying 0.6° north of the Orion Nebula. The reflection nebula embedded in Sh2-279 is popularly known as the Running Man Nebula

Constellation: Orion

Apparent magnitude (V): 7

Right ascension: 05h 35m 16.2s

Distance: 1,500 ly

Apparent dimensions (V): 40′×25′ (1977) arcmins

NGC 1999, also known as The Cosmic Keyhole, is a dust-filled bright nebula with a vast hole of empty space represented by a black patch of sky, as can be seen in the photograph. It is a reflection nebula, and shines from the light of the variable star V380 Orionis.

Magnitude: 9.5

Constellation: Orion

Apparent magnitude (V): 9.5

Distance: 1,500 ly

Apparent dimensions (V): 1.5 arcmins

Here is a quick process of one of my targets from my second night at Eldorado Star Party, wide field images are some of my favorites, Orion raise from the horizon after 3am... the night was cold but the sky was perfect to imagine. I hope you all enjoy this picture.

"In the constellation of Orion there are some of the most famous objects in the night sky, beginning with the sword of Orion which contains the Great Orion Nebula M42 and the Running Man Nebula NGC 1977 then moving towards the middle of the constellation in Orion's belt you have the Horsehead Nebula IC 434 and the Flame Nebula NGC 2024.

In wide field shots you begin to see larger structures of nebulosity such as Barnards Loop the red semicircle engulfing the lower portion of the constellation, and then there's the Lambda Orionis Nebula the bright red circle of nebulosity on the top of the constellation which to me represents Orion's head.

Also in this image is the famous Rosette Nebula Caldwell 49 which is the small compact red nebulous blob to the bottom left, and then to the left of the Rosette is the Cone Nebula and Christmas Tree Cluster NGC 2264."

Technical info:

Canon 6D modded

Rokinon 35mm 1.4

90 x 30" Light at 1600 ISO

Takahashi mount EM-100

Total exposure time 45 minutes

Eldorado, Tx (X-Bar Ranch) Oct 2019

Eldorado Star Party

50x200s

ASI2600mc, AM5N, WO Star71-II

First light with the ASI2600mc Pro

The Great Nebula in Orion (M42) and the Running Man Nebula (NGC 1977), photographed in Narrowband using the Hubble Palette (HST).

M42 is a diffuse nebula situated in the Milky Way, south of Orion's Belt in the constellation of Orion. It is one of the brightest nebulae, and is visible to the naked eye in the night sky. M42 is located at a distance of 1,344 light-years, and is the closest region of massive star formation to Earth.

Why image in Narrowband?

In short, different elements show up in different colors of the spectra in far more detail. See my link to ''A brief description of the Electromagnetic Spectrum of Light'' for more info.

Why go through all the trouble?

“That's the way to learn the most, that when you are doing something with such enjoyment that you don’t notice that the time passes.” - Albert Einstein.

Narrowband wavelengths of the light spectra in this image:

The Hubble Palette (HST)

Hydrogen-Alpha - 656.3nm

Oxygen-III - 500.7nm

Sulfur-II - 672.4nm

RGB Channel Mapping Ratio:

Red: 40% Ha + 60% SII

Green: 40% OIII + 30% Ha + 30% SII

Blue: 100% OIII

PixInsight PixelMath Formula Expression:

R/K: 0.4*Ha + 0.6*SII

G: 0.4*OIII + 0.3*Ha + 0.3*SII

B: OIII

Processing:

Pre-Processing and Linear workflow in PixInsight. PixelMath and Nebula Structure enhancement via Wavelets. Finished in Photoshop.

"Capturing Data is Science, but Processing it is Art".

Astrometry Info:

Annotated Sky Chart for this image.

RA, Dec center: 83.7624970537, -5.30247840247 degrees

Orientation: 1.2575903817 deg E of N

Pixel scale: 5.79732928062 arcsec/pixel

View this image in World Wide Telescope.

Hubble Palette explanation:

www.astronomymark.com/hubble_palette.htm

Narrowband explanation:

www.swagastro.com/narrowband-information.html

My brief description of the Electromagnetic Spectrum of Light:

www.flickr.com/photos/martin_heigan/22278042895

Martin

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This frames the variety of bright nebulas and dark dust clouds in and around the Belt and Sword of Orion.

It shows how the bright Orion Nebula is really just the visible tip of a vast complex of gas and dust in Orion.

Above centre is the trio of Belt stars surrounded by dust clouds, many reflecting starlight. Below the left star of the Belt, Alnitak, is the famous dark protrusion of the Horsehead Nebula, B33, small on this scale. Above Alnitak is the pinkish Flame Nebula, NGC 2024. Above that are the reflection nebulas Messier 78 and NGC 2071 embedded in lanes of brownish dust. At left is the large curving arc of Barnard's Loop, aka Sharpless 2-276, which extends down under Orion at bottom where it is more obscured by dust and so redder.

Below the Belt is the Sword of Orion marked by the cyan tinted Orion Nebula, Messier 42 and 43, with the Running Man Nebula, NGC 1975, above, and all embedded in dim red and brownish dust clouds.

This is a stack of 14 x 2 minute exposures with the Canon RF135mm lens at f/2 and on the Canon Ra at ISO 800. The lens had an 82mm URTH Night broadband filter on it to enhance nebulas somewhat. But I shot this under superb skies in Australia in March 2024. Tracked but not guided on the Astro-Physics AP400 mount. The Nik Collection Color EFX Detail Extactor filter and Photokemi Actions Nebula Filter set were used to bring out the dim dust clouds in processing.

This image shows a giant star-forming region in the Orion constellation. These two nebulas, as well as a group of bright stars nearby to the left, create the "sword" of the Orion constellation, which hangs diagonally down from Orion's belt. it is located approximately 1,600 light years from Earth. M42 Great Orion Nebula on the right, Running Man Nebula on the left.

This image gets me much closer to where I want to be with this part of the sky. A lot of acquisition work and processing work here. The outer edge of the image shows a lot of warped stars - I need a field flattener. Happy with this though!

Image Details:

- Imaging Scope: Astrotelescopes 80mm ED Refractor

- Imaging Camera: Nikon D7000

- Guiding Scope: William Optics 66mm Petzval Refractor

- Guiding Camera: Meade DSI-C

- Mount: Celestron CGEM

- Exposures: 7 * 7 minute lights for the expanded nebulosity, 10 * 1 minute lights for the bright stars, 10 * 20 second lights for the core of M42, 6 * 7 minute darks

- ISO 640

- Aligned and Stacked in Deep Sky Stacker

- Post-Processing in GIMP (layering, image matching, contrast, saturation and unsharp mask, level adjustment)

- Mild tone mapping in Photomatix Pro

- Noise Reduction in NeatImage

Optolong L-pro filter, William Optics Redcat 51, ASI183MC Pro at -10C. 15 x 3 minute exposures at Gain 122, 20 dark frames, 20 flat fields, 50 Bias frames.

Sky Watcher Sky Adventurer

Processed in APP and Pixinsight .

Two incredible nebulae in the most famous constellation in our sky: Orion!

Local: Brazil/Piracicaba

Aquisition: 505 frames (HDR include) in LRGB.

Telescope: FótonAstro Astropgraph 8" F4

Camera: ZWO ASI294mm Pro

Filters: Antlia V-Pro Series

Aberkenfig, South Wales

Lat 51.542 N Long 3.593 W

Skywatcher 254mm Newtonian Reflector, Olympus E410 at prime focus. EQ6 Syntrek Mount.

36 frames used in final processing (12x60s, 14x50s & 10x40s all at ISO 800). Also 10 dark frames at 60s.

Processed with Deep Sky Stacker and final levels adjusted with G.I.M.P.

Although captured under what seemed to be cloudless sky, the seeing conditions and transparency were not at their best. The light pollution at my location is also presents a challenge. A fairly reasonable outcome with the equipment used.

The image displays some coma towards the edges. This is is one drawback of a parabolic f/4.8 Newtonian.

M42 and The Running Man Nebula. This is a reprocess of old data. image consists of 12 180sec exposures plus 20 15sec exposures for the core. Taken with a modified Canon 450D through Skywatcher ED80.

160 exposures at 10s, D300 ISO1600, f4, 300 mm, minitrack LX2

Deep Sky Stacker, Affinity

1 Hour 43 Minutes of exposure time on the Orion and Running Man Nebulas from St. Louis, MO. The image was taken with a standard Canon XT attached to a 8 inch f4.9 telescope.

M42 is one of my favorite deep space objects to photograph. It about 1270 light years away in the "middle" star in the sword of Orion.

Including The Flame Nebula, The Horsehead Nebula, The Running Man Nebula, The Great Orion Nebula

Tracked Image with AstroTrac TT 320

280 * 30 Seconds @ F/5.6

Stacked in Deep Sky Stacker

Background Removal in PixInsight

Final Edits in Photoshop

Had a session on M42 the other night whilst testing the guiding on the QHY5 I've just acquired (works), and having done M42, and done it again, and again, I thought I'd drizzle into this. Only 19 subs before it disappeared behind a tree, so very noisy, but colourful nonetheless :) I really need a longer focal length, and a lot more subs, to do this justice.

Designated NGC 1973, 1975 and 1977 (the seventies), but more commonly known as The Running Man Nebula, this is just north of M42 in Orion.

Orion and Running Man Nebula

ASI 1600mm Pro

William Optics Zenithstar 73mm APO

Skywatcher EQ6r-Pro

Chroma LRGB Filters

ASI 290mm Mini

Orion 60mm f4 Guidescope

Processed in Pixinsight and Lightroom

M42

22nd February 2022

M42 Orion Nebula & NGC 1977 Running Man Nebula

9 x 300sec (45min total)

Altair Astro 80ED Refractor with 0.8x flattener/reducer

Altair Astro Hypercam 183C PRO (Gain 400, Offest 48, Bin 1x1)

SkyTech LPRO Max filter

Processed with Deep Sky Stacker and Affinity Photo

"Winter is coming"

Orion is an iconic constellation of the winter sky. Within it are the "Great Orion Nebula" and the "Running Man Nebula". It consists of dense areas of hydrogen-rich interstellar gas and dust. The complex is located about 1500 light-years away, spanning 100 light-years. The title object itself is by far the brightest part, visible to the naked eye in the constellation Orion, shining like a slightly blurred, larger star.

It is already visible quite high above the horizon in the evening, so I aimed it from the balcony with my small telescope. Here is the end result.

Seestar s50 telescope

mosaic mode 475 x 10 sec expo

It is one of the brightest nebulae, and is visible to the naked eye during winter months in the Northern hemisphere. Its distance from Earth is 1,344 light years. It’s estimated to be 24 light years across.

Taken in my back garden using an unmodified 5Diii on a star tracker 400mm focal length at F5.6.

An unguided/untracked view of the Great Orion Nebula (M42) taken with a 300mm zoom lens mounted to a Nikon D5100 DSLR. The base exposure time was only 1/3 second, although multiple images were taken and then combined ("stacked") to produce a higher-contrast and lower-noise result. This photo also captured M43 (small companion to M42) and a faint trace of the Running Man Nebula (NGC 1973/5/7).

This image is best viewed in the Flickr light box or at full size (press the "L" key to toggle the light box or click one of the following links):

Orion Nebula in 0.33 Seconds, View On Black

Orion Nebula in 0.33 Seconds, View At Full Size

Photographed on February 8, 2012 between the hours of 6:45PM and 7:06PM PST using a Nikon D5100 DSLR and a Nikkor AF-S 70-300mm 1:4.5-5.6 G zoom lens (ISO 3200, 1/3 second exposure x 512, 300mm at f/5.6). Image registration, integration (or "stacking," giving a total integration time of 171 seconds), and adjustments done with PixInsight v01.07.05.0779 (trial).

No camera tracking or guided was done to capture this image. In fact, that was the point of this exercise, to see what could be done without a telescope and without any tracking or guiding system (just an unmodified digital camera on a standard, fixed tripod).

I'm still waiting to try this subject from a dark location and without the nearly full moon breaking over the eastern horizon (the conditions that I had when I took the above picture, from my driveway and with significant light pollution given my near city-center location).

Lastly, it should be noted that you don't want to create a large number of pictures using techniques similar to what I have done here, since your camera has a finite limit on the number of shutter actuations that it will provide during its lifetime. It seems that modern DSLRs can provide in excess of 100,000 shutter actuations before needing repair (or breaking), so this exercise in relatively extreme image stacking may have used somewhat less than 1% of my camera's expected shutter life. That is to say, if you tried something like the above each and every day your camera might only last for a few months.

All rights reserved.

Total exposure : 43 minutes

86x30 sec subs(no dark,bias flat frames)

Camera : Nikon D5600

Lens : 70-300 mm kit lens @300mm f6.3

Mount : iOptron Skyguider pro

Bortle scale :Class 4

This is a stack of nearly 100 photos of Orion's Nebula and the Running Man Nebula taken in the dark skies of Joshua Tree National Park, located in southern California. I'm fairly happy with the results but I need to work on my astrophotography post-processing skills.

The Great Nebula in Orion, M42 was visible to the naked eye and could be seen very well with binoculars. This nebula is "only" 1,344 light years away. In all my photos the Running Man Nebula (above the Orion Nebula) was invisible, but stacking nearly 100 pictures made it visible.

Stack of 97 exposures taken with a Canon 7D Mark II and Canon EF 400mm f/5.6L USM at 1 second, ISO 16,000 and f/5.6.

Today I have revisited some data that I shot on 8th January 2019 in preparation for an upcoming talk.

Taken from Oxfordshire, UK with a Modded Canon 1100D with 50 fixed lens and Skytech Light Pollution Clip Filter on a Star Adventurer Mini mount tracking at sidereal rate.

ISO-1600 for 60 seconds at f/1.8

67 lights and 30 darks stacked in Deep Sky Stacker, then processed in Photoshop CS2, Lightroom and Fast Stone Image Viewer.

In today's reprocess I started by using the star reduction action in the RC Astro Tools Photoshop plugin, then I tweaked the levels and curves a bit more. I followed this up with several iterations of denoising using Fast Stone Image Viewer.

If you zoom in you can see a tiny horsehead nebula and tiny flame nebula, as well as the bright region around Orion's Sword where M42 the Orion Nebula and Running Man nebula reside. I do need to start over and do a processing run that doesn't over-expose the M42 region and blend that back in, but I don't have time to do that today!

A wide field shot of the famous Great Nebula in Orion. An emission/reflection nebula M42 lies at a distance of over 1300 light years and is around 24 light years in diameter.

Also visible is the blue coloured reflection nebula NGC 1977 dubbed the Running Man Nebula. It is so named because the dark area of the nebula resembles the silhouette of someone in a hurry!! NGC 1977 lies at a distance of around 1500 light years.

This image is wider take on my earlier version of this object from November 2014

The Running Man Nebula (Sh2-279) would easily be one of the most popular astrophotography targets in the northern sky if it weren't for its unfortunate proximity to the Orion Nebula, just half a field of view away. Every year, everyone takes their obligatory image of M42. And even if the field of view is wide enough to include the Running Man Nebula, the attention will still be drawn to the intricate, rippling structure of the Orion Nebula, rather than its overlooked "little sibling" at the edge of the frame.

Last week, there were a few clearer nights, so I managed to capture this image. I hope it inspires others to give this celestial object a try because it is truly beautiful!

Our brightest Deep Space Object, the Orion Nebula and Running Man Nebula.

Captured with Seestar S50.

The Orion Nebula and it’s neighbour the Running Man Nebula are diffused nebulae situated in the constellation of Orion, The Orion Nebula, 1344 light years away, is one of the brightest nebulae, and is visible to the naked eye in dark sky conditions.

This photograph is a combination of 26 frames each shot at 25 seconds, f5.6, ISO 800. 30 calibration frames were added to reduce noise, light pollution and vignetting.

Camera gear Olympus OM-D EM1 MkIII with the M.Zuiko 300mm f4.0 Pro lens.

I love the Running Man nebula. It's one of those nebulae were you can actually see how it got it's name.

The Orion nebula is about 1,500 light years away from us.

Image was captured on Friday 10th of November from the Astronomy Centre, Todmorden, UK.

It was a joint effort between myself and observatory members Stuart Keane, Stephen Nield.

We used a TS-Optics 60mm doublet refractor with a Photoline 0.76 flattener/reducer on a Skywatcher HEQ5 pro mount. Camera was a ZWO asi485mc. Guiding was done with a small RVO 32mm mini guidescope and a ZWO asi120mm mini. All controlled with a ZWO asiair plus.

20 light frames of 3 minutes each exposure time stacked together with darks, flats & bias using ASIDeepStack.

Touch ups and noise reduction done using StarTools software.

This is a collaboration between Robert Fields of Irving Observatory Howell Twp MI and Terry Hancock of Downunder Observatory Fremont, MI.

Terry using Takahashi Epsilon E-180ED / QHY11S Mono CCD

LRGB 97 min bin 1x1

Robert using Takahashi FSQ-106 Refractor / ST11000 Mono CCD

LRGB 170 min bin 1x1

Total Exposure/Integration time 1.5 hours

The constellation of Orion is home to many treasures, including the Orion Nebula seen here. A small part of the immense Orion Molecular Cloud, M42 is perhaps the most studied extra-solar object in the sky but also featured prominently here is NGC 1973/5/7 or otherwise known as the Running Man Nebula and to the lower right of M42 is NGC 1999, a dust filled nebula.

Photo taken from Fokida, near Crhyso village (Delphi), Greece.

Few days ago, while being away from Athens, under a dark clear winter sky with low light pollution, I took some photos of the whole Orion constellation, using my humble DSLR camera and just a fixed 50mm lens. Then while processing the photos I noticed that I had captured all 4 major nebulas of the constellation. From left to right: Flame nebula, Horse Head nebula, Running Man nebula and Orion nebula. Using a modern cheap DSLR camera, astrophotography has become a hobby for the masses!

Lens: Canon 50mm f/1.8 (@f/2.0)

Camera: Canon EOS 250D

Exposure: 40 light frames * 4sec. = 160sec., 1 dark frame

ISO: 1600

Mount: Alt./Az.

Processing: DSS stacking & GIMP

The Running Man Nebula and Orion Nebula. I tried something different this evening, this is just 20 minutes of data and with my Seestar S50 with the light pollution filter off. Processed in Pixinsight and On1 Photo Raw.

Running Man Nebula or Sh2-279.

Skywatcher 200p, NEQ6 mount, Optolong CLS-CCD filter, Baader MPCC M3 coma corrector, ASI294MC Pro at -20C. 42 x 1 minute exposures at Gain 121, dithering every 5 frames, Offset 30, 20 dark frames, 40 flat fields, 40 dark flat frames.

Processed in APP, Topaz de-noise and Photoshop.

21/12/2020 Very Windy and few salvagable sub-frames.

The Great Orion Nebula (M42) and the Running Man Nebula (NGC 1977)

The Nebula complex (NGC1976) in Orion: The Orion Nebula is one of the brightest nebulae in the sky, shinning brightly in the constellation Orion. The Orion Nebula is the closest "Star Forming" region to the Sun, but still lies about 1,600 light-years away and is 30 light-years across. Inside the bright core, hydrogen gas and dust are collapsing into new stars, creating intense heat and radiation, which causes the outer clouds of gases to glow beautiful shades of pink and red. Another nebula can be seen in this photograph, the blue reflection nebula NGC1977. The blue color of this nebula is caused by reflected starlight from some bright stars onto gas and dust floating in the foreground. Dark lanes of dust create distinct shadows, which give rise to its nickname "The Running Man Nebula".

This is a single 40 minute exposure using conventional slide film. I used an old Olympus OM1 35mm film camera attached to a Meade LXD75 8" Schmidt Newtonian Telescope for focal length of 812mm at f/4. While the mount automatically tracked the object, I hand guided corrections (to fix tracking errors) using another telescope (Orion guidescope) attached to the main scope. Total cost of this setup was under $1,700 U.S. For details on how you can capture the universe in brilliant color visit my website at Petes Astrophotography

To buy prints and other gifts using this photograph please visit Cosmic Colors

This is a portrait of the constellation of Orion, shot and processed to bring out the rich array of bright and dark nebulas within its boundaries.

The largest feature is the arc of Barnard's Loop, a possible supernova remnant or stellar wind-blown bubble that encircles Orion. It is officially catalogued as Sharpless 2-276, and is usually plotted as just the easternmost arc, though it extends down and below Orion, all the way over to blue Rigel at bottom right.

To the right of Rigel is the purply-blue Witch Head Nebula, IC 2118, a reflection nebula lit by Rigel. Fainter blue nebulosity extends above it.

Below the three stars of the Belt of Orion just below centre is the nebulosity in the Sword of Orion that includes the dark Horsehead Nebula and below that the very bright Orion Nebula complex, Messier 42/M43, plus the bluish Running Man Nebula, above it, catalogued as NGC 1973-5-7.

The Belt and Sword are wrapped in other fainter red emission nebulas, patches of blue reflection nebulas, all amid a backround of dark yellow-brown dust clouds. The latter are densest above the left star of the Belt, Alnitak, with a dark lane containing the small but bright reflection nebula Messier 78. Just above Alnitak is the orange Flame Nebula.

At top is the large circular emission nebula Sharpless 2-264, surrounding the head of Orion and the star Meissa and a loose open star cluster Collinder 69. The nebula has become known as the Angelfish Nebula. It sits above orange Betelgeuse (at left) and blue-white Bellatrix (at right), marking the shoulders of Orion.

This is a stack of 16 x 2-minute exposures with the Canon RF28-70mm f/2 lens stopped down to f/2.8, on the filter-modified (by AstroGear) Canon EOS R camera at ISO 1600. The lens was equipped with a 95mm URTH broadband light pollution reduction filter which helps improve contrast and reduce sky gradients. The camera was on the MSM Nomad tracker for tracked but unguided exposures over 30 minutes. To those I blended in a stack of 4 x 2-minute exposures that had light cloud that added the fuzzy stars glows naturally. I did not use a diffusion filter. Incoming thin clouds prevented more exposures.

Processing with PhotoKemi "Nebula Filter" action and Nik Collection Color EFX filters (Detail Extractor and Pro Contrast) helped bring out the faint nebulosity, and with luminosity masks created with Lumenzia applied to restrict the effects to mid to mid-darks tones.

Taken from home on February 1, 2024.

So, a re-process of the Orion Nebula data collected a month ago, which was only a few days after my first ever attempt at shooting this legendary deep sky object.

I'm really happy with how this has come out and is progressing. I really ideally want to add more total exposure time to this as it's still a very short exposure of around 41 minutes.

Shot on

Canon 7D MK II + 70-200 2.8 IS II + 1.4 III tele

Star Adventurer mount

Stacked in Deep Sky Stacker

Processed in Lightroom & Photoshop

40 x2's subs, stacked in DSS 10 darks and bias.

I have not got the new NEQ6 Pro mount set up as yet, this shows The Great Orion Nebula de Mairans Nebula and a glimpse of the Running Man Nebula, however a few stars are a little overcooked, still a good learning step.

As for the mount over the EQ5 it's wonderful, but I think most of that is because its tracking all be it a little off at the mo, its much easier to get focus as if zoomed in on live view it stays in the screen.

Orion Nebula and Running Man Nebula

Second real attempt with Sky Watcher Star Adventurer tracking mount and Deep Sky Stacker software

Still not getting that many frames to stack. Just 11 Light frames.

Time is a big limiting factor for me. Besides I still have to learn how to edit these too.

Canon 80D

Sigma 150-600C

Star Watcher Sky Adventurer tracking mount.

(11) 30sec exposures

10 darks and 10 flats

stacked with Deep Sky Stacker software

Here is a version of M42 "The Great Nebula in Orion" processed in HST (Hubble Palette) with SII assigned to red channel, H-Alpha to green channel and OIII to blue channel. Shot at native resolution (F5.5).

An unusual looking M42 with this method and an even more unusual looking NGC 1977 (The Running Man Nebula)

Total Exposure time 12 hours.

Date of Shoot Nov 19th, 29th, Dec 3rd, 5th, 11th and 14th 2012

All exposures unbinned

H-Alpha, OIII, SII 7 x 30 min each

H-Alpha, OIII, SII 30 x 1 min each

QHY9M monochrome CCD cooled to -30C www.astrofactors.com

Thomas M. Back TMB 92SS F5.5 APO Refractor Astronomics

Paramount GT-1100S German Equatorial Mount (with MKS 4000)

Image Aquisition Maxim DL

Stacking and Calibrating: CCDStack

Registration of images in Registar

Post Processing Photoshop CS5

Clear Skies

Terry

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L 300s x2 + 120s x2 + 30s x2

RGB 300s x2 (binned 2x2) + 120s x2 + 30s x2 (each)

LRGB

SBIG STL-11000M

Takahashi FSQ-ED 106mm

Paramount PME

DSS > PixInsight (HDR technique as per Kayron Mercieca) > PS

15 minutes

This image, taken over 3 nights, shows M42 along with 2 other nebulae, De Mairan’s nebula (M43) and The Running Man nebula (Sh2-279). De Mairan’s nebula is located just off to the centre left of the image, separated from M42 by dark dust lanes. The Running Man nebula can be seen towards the top of the image as an area of blue nebulosity (a reflection nebula), with the ‘Running Man’ as a silhouette in the middle.

As some of you may know, I've been interested in capturing some deep space objects in my images and have been doing some testing with a couple of tracking devices. And after a lot of patience and testing, I'm happy to report that I've finally made some good progress. In-fact, you may have seen one of my composite images of Comet ISON a little while back. And while my tracker is really meant for wide-field astrophotography, I've gotten pretty good with it... to the point where I've been able to use even my telephoto lenses with impressive results.

Here, I really pushed my techniques and my gear to the limits with a composite image of a part of the Orion Constellation called the sword. I thought I did a pretty good job of capturing the colors & details in three nebula clouds including the Orion Nebula and the Running Man Nebula - a definite first for me!

There is a lot more to this post... see the rest of the backstory, the techniques, and get free wallpaper from www.coloradocaptures.com/orions-sword-winter-sky

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Date: 13 November, 10 December 2013

Integration: Ha: 50 minutes, RGB: 80 minutes

Canon Rebel T3i / 600D/ Kiss X5 - astro-modded.

Telescope: Officina Stellare APO APM130 -780.

Astronomik's CLS & Ha 12nm Clip Filter.

Mounted on a SkyWatcher NEQ6 Pro Mount.

Guiding: Skywatcher Startravel 80/ QHY5 Guider

Imaged at Waterlooville, UK.

This image shows the result of combined hydrogen alpha and DSLR RGB data. All data was captured using Backyard EOS camera control software and processed in PixInsight. The colour is somewhat muted in comparison to many "Orion shots", my intention was to present this image objectively, just the correction of the camera's colour bias and a white balance adjustment was made.

M42, the Orion Nebula, and Running Man Nebula, visible to the naked eye as the middle star in Orion's sword. One of the most photographed areas of the winter sky, because of it's multi-colored beauty and details, and because it is so bright. It's about1,350 light-years away. Taken with an Esprit 80mm, (Fl 400mm) and QHY268C. I combined 1 min exposures (40 min) to bring out the detail in the bright core, with mostly 5 min exposures (25hr 18m) to bring out the fainter outlying dust clouds.

The great Orion Nebula and the Running man nebula. Another winter, more data added to this target that I don’t believe will ever be totally finished, just evolving.

Equipment:

-Celestron Rasa 8”

-ZWO ASI183MM Pro

-Celestron AVX

-ZWO ASI Air Pro

-ZWO 120mm mini

-ZWO mini guide scope

-ZWO EAF

-Orion LRGB

-ZWO 7nm Ha

30x120” lights(RGB), 500x60” Hydrogen Alpha, 24x300” Hydrogen Alpha, with darks and bias frames.

Processed in AstroPixel Processor and Photoshop

I do like annotating images!

Had no idea the Running Man nebula is also Sharpless 2-279 or the Orion nebula is also Sharpless 2-281. Doubt I'll retain that for long.

Van den Bergh 42 is a small reflection nebula but it would take a much deeper image to show up the faint blue nebulosity.

NGC 1980 is a small open cluster.

NGC 1981 is a personal favourite open cluster as it was the first object I tried to find with a telescope.

Image Solver and Annotate Image scripts in PixInsight do all the hard work.

Skywatcher Star Adventurer Pro tracker.

Polar alignment with QHY PoleMaster.

Taken with a modified Canon 80D with an IDAS D1 light pollution filter and a Samyang 135mm lens wide open at f/2.

40 x 50 second subs at ISO100.

90 x flat frames

90 x dark frames

90 x bias frames

Image processed in PixInsight 1.8.6 and Photoshop 2019 CC