M42 from January, reprocessed

I took this image back in January (and some of the composite images in December) but was never quite satisfied with the result. (You can view my last result here: http://dandkmccrady.home.comcast.net/images/M42-2005-01-02.jpg.)

The base image is a 9 stack of 5-minute images, combined using "extended add divided by two" in Images Plus. The core was then masked using the following successively smaller sub-images:

1. The same 9x5 images, but stacked using"average"
2. 5x90 second exposure, averaged
3. 5x30 second exposure, averaged
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I played with the colours a little bit too to help bring out the red, and I left the background quite a bit brighter. Here's the latest result:



(Click http://djmccradyastro2.home.comcast.net/images/M42-2005-01-02B.jpg for the full resolution image.)

Comments appreciated, thanks!

That's very nice, Don. You've got good color and a lot of extended nebulosity. Well done.

dan kowall

This is a beautiful image, Don. For some reason I could only see Dan's reply yesterday, then Timothy's this morning. Your original message didn't pop up until just now. I was wondering what they were talking about. Strange.

Nice job - Cal

Don, that's a keeper! What a beauty!

New image looks great Don. I'll have to try that extened add/2 thing. My Sword of Orion project has left me flat too. Its not for a lack of trying though.