Orion Nebula from last night

[miki g]

January 23, 2016 at 9:52 am

[derek897]

January 23, 2016 at 12:38 pm

Cracking shot, is it a single image or multiples stacked. Could you post what you used equipment, settings, tracker if used.
Would love to give this type of thing a go, I have been reading up on it but would love to here how and what you use.
Derek

[miki g]

January 23, 2016 at 10:35 pm

Thanks Derek.
This is a single frame 30 sec exposure, f/6 500 ISO on a Canon 7D camera mounted on a small refractor telescope (using prime focus). The telescope is mounted on a AstroTrac mount for tracking. The telescope’s focal length is 480mm. I also used a light pollution filter in the camera.
This was just a test shot to see how the setup would perform. I only received the telescope on Tuesday, and this was my first opportunity to try it out. The seeing conditions were not too good due to light pollution, a slight fog and an almost full moon. I hope to try this again soon.

[derek897]

January 24, 2016 at 12:43 am

Thanks for that Miki G. It’s a belter, and even more so as you were just trying it out in less than ideal conditions. Mmm I might have to look into this stuff a bit more. Look forward to seeing more of these from you.
Did it require much pp ?

[miki g]

January 24, 2016 at 10:41 am

Shot in RAW. The light pollution filter adds a lot of green to the image which needs to be removed to give a more neutral look, but this tends to increase the red from the nebula. Personally, I find the red to be a bit too strong in this image. I stretched the histogram using levels to bring out some of the feint stars, but had to be careful not to blow out the highlights of the bright stars in the core. The Orion nebula is a difficult target to shoot because of it’s dynamic range & multiple exposures would definitely help. I then used curves to balance the contrast. Vignetting becomes more prominent from stretching the histogram, but curves can help to correct this. I then reduced the noise. The 7D is notorious for noise in low light situations, but surprisingly, it wasn’t as bad as I was expecting. A slight sharpen was applied to finish it.
PP is a big part of Astro imaging & there are lots of software options out there which are probably better for this than Paintshop pro, which is what I use & I have a lot to learn. :)