Orion Nebula

I love seeing these astro shots. You probably already know, but this one looks just a little softer than I guess it could. I'm sure it's hard as anything to get these images to perfectly align though! No doubt you've done much better than I could. I like the processing ... the nice cool tones in the nebula are really beautiful. The composition could be a bit more exciting ... it seems a touch cramped on the lower right as my eye seems follow the "blast" of the nebula into that direction. Maybe a vertical composition with the nebula a bit higher and to the left would be better. Just some thoughts! Enjoyed looking at this one.

Thanks, Chris! I have more below and on the right, but cropped this way because it was crowded on the top. I would have preferred to point the camera a little higher but on this rig it isn't easy to move the camera at that magnification without loosing the subject completely, so decided to quit while I was ahead.

Since posting I decided it would be better with a tweak to the black point and a little more saturation. I'm new to posting here -- if I can do a re-post in the same thread, with those changes and your crop suggestion, I'll try to figure it out.

The stars are just slightly elongated, by maybe half a diameter. But I have some uncorrected astigmatism in my right eye and if I view the post with both eyes at normal reading distance, I see more elongation than there is in the master file when viewed at 100%. If I close my right eye and get right at the proper focus distance with my reading glasses, the stars look round.

The stars are slightly softened by the nebulosity and by atmospheric effects, too. I'll keep trying to minimize those things. I'm crawling my way up a long learning curve.

Very nice Diane,

I know how tough this is (it's tough for me anyway!)and this is a nice image of this nebula complex. The reflection nebula around the running man and some of the edges of the Orion Nebula have more blue in them. The subtle pinks of the emission nebula are more red and vibrant. This could be a white balance thing, or a saturation thing, or a signal thing.... Using unmodified cameras it is tough to know what is "natural" and what is not.

I'm really amazed at how much noise is reduced with image stacking. The more the merrier it seems! Keep getting out there! I look forward to seeing more of your images.

Thanks, Chris! I need to find sources for what the colors should be. Is a CCD camera more color-accurate? I shoot in Daylight WB and don't change colors except by global saturation -- probably the best I can do?

I need to learn the advantages of modified cameras. Time to start hanging out on Astronomy Forums again. Do you recommend any good places?

Diane Miller wrote:Thanks, Chris! I need to find sources for what the colors should be.  Is a CCD camera more color-accurate?  I shoot in Daylight WB and don't change colors except by global saturation -- probably the best I can do?

I need to learn the advantages of modified cameras.  Time to start hanging out on Astronomy Forums again.  Do you recommend any good places?

I don't have any experience with a CCD camera, but i believe that they record all wavelengths of light and restriction is achieved through filters.  This would give you the most versatility, however they can be very expensive.

As far as modified cameras, I do not have any experience here either.  I am using an unmodified 7D2.  I'm planning on modifying a camera (with hap griffin) soon, so I can comment on that more later. 

A great resource for the different objects in the night sky (listed by season) is Jerry Lodriguss's, Guide to the deep sky.  Its a CD and costs about $40.  Well worth every penny!!!!!  Has tons of objects to find, along with exposure info for the images presented.  Also, the colors are pretty reliable as to what it "should" look like. 

Thanks! I got his processing "book" and have only just started looking at it. Will get the guide. I've jumped into all this without much basic research.

Very nice view of Orion nebula. If you like get the best in the astrophoto field I advised you using Pixinsight (http://pixinsight.com/).

It's been highly recommended and I'll probably get it when I have time to learn it. It does run on a Mac, which a lot of the popular software doesn't.

This is awesome Diane!!!
It's great to see all the astrophotos here. I know it will pique an interest in some to pursue this area further.
Have fun in your journey!

Hello Diane,

A very nice image. Increasing saturation would make the image pop.

Regarding color balance, your image has very good balance. Modifying a camera for increased hydrogen-alpha throws off the color balanace, typically making nebulae blood red. But nebulae are a combination of red H-alpha, blue H-beta, green oxygen, and other elements, like sulfur (yellow). The true color of hydrogen-containing nebulae is pinkish-magenta. In a large telescope, one can see the pinks and blues, not blood red in the Orion nebula.

The star movement in only 30 seconds indicates flexure as the system rotates. Perhaps a larger ball head on the astrotrac? I have a large ball head on my astrotrac and am thinking about switching to a gimbal head.

Roger

Hi Roger,

Nice to run into you again in cyberspace. Your Comet Lovejoy was absolutely amazing and the information about the 7D2 was wonderful.

Thanks for the information here -- I have so much to learn about this new venture. I hope to try for this again in a week or so, with improved IQ, and will do more saturation. I was surprised how much color came out and quit too soon.

I started the Astrotrac venture with a big Arca-Swiss ballhead but it limited camera movement. Then I tried my Wimberley II and it was too hard to aim. Then I went to the counterweight head which makes aiming much easier. I'm using a big Gitzo CF tripod with a weight hung from below the head but I'm not sure it is helping. Trying to be on very firm ground, too.

But I think I've pinned down the cause of the elongated stars here. I hadn't seen them in earlier attempts at working out the system. For this run I wanted to try Helicon Remote for focusing, framing and and shooting but it didn't support the 7D2. I dropped them a note and they asked if I would evaluate the beta that they hoped would support it. After shooting this sequence I noticed that the shutter activations with their Time Lapse function were making more noise than with my intervalometer, on both the 7D2 and 5D3. They're now looking into it. (It isn't mirror slap -- the mirror stays up -- but the noises are different.)

Until that's worked out, after focusing and framing I'll use the intervalometer. There's no conflict to have it attached and just unplug the USB port to the computer and fire away -- MLU enabled. I'm betting that will fix the issue.

Hi Diane,
I see you are registering the 16 images in photoshop. That must be tedious. You might try one of the astro image processing systems and may produce a better result. For example, registax is free. http://www.astronomie.be/registax/
(I use ImagesPlus.)

I also use my gitzo CF with winberly head to hold the astrotrac. The wimberly makes polar alignment easier. Then I have an arc-swiss B1 ball head on the astrotrac.

Yes, small world.

Roger

Stacking in PS is easy. From Lightroom select all the lights and do Photo > Edit in > Open as Layers in PS. Then select all (that's a little tedious -- Ctrl-click on one at a time -- the click-shift-click thing doesn't work but guess I could make an action). Do Edit > Auto Align Layers and accept the default of Auto. Then do Layer > Smart Objects > Convert to Smart Object. Then Layer > Smart Objects > Stack Mode > Median (or others if desired).

I may be deluding myself but it seems to work very well. Registax and ImagesPlus are Win-only and I witched to Mac when Vista came out. (Now I hate them both.)

I tried the AT on the Wimberley initially and soon got the AT Wedge head. Easier to control then the gimbal. Interesting side-note: the levels on the tripod and the wedge don't agree. I've been using the one on the wedge. I use an adapter on the tripod to switch back and forth between the wedge+AT and the Wimberley for regular photography. I put a RRS PC-PRO Round screw-knob panning clamp on the tripod and on both the Wimberley and AT there is a RRS TH-DVTL-55 Round Dovetail Plate. Easy to switch and the panning clamp gives me more leeway in initial tripod placement for the AT.