M42, The Great orion Nebula
M42 is one of the first objects from which a beginning astrophotographer can get a recognizable image. It's big, it's bright, and it's easy to find. Once those first pictures are in the archive, the novice begins to compare his shot with those of the experts. Hmmm.... Actually, M42 is quite a difficult object to do really well. Its range of brightness is very great, so it's very hard to get the Trapezium stars and the faint red and blue nebulosity to all register properly. M43 is the comma-shaped object just to the left (north) of the main bulk of M42. The Running Man blue reflection nebula (NGC 1977, left in the above shot) is a tenuous object and demands good blue response in the film. This version is a step up from my early version (here) but it's still a long ways from those expert shots (I'll let you find those on the links page).
| Date | 2000 December 27 |
| Scope | Astro-Physics 130 f6 on G-11 mount |
| Exposure | Kodak LE 400, 1 @ 15 min; 1 @ 39 min, both with Tokai filter |
| Processing | Stacked in RegiStar, stretched in PhotoShop |