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Orion Nebula - Wide Field in B&W

Discussion in 'Astrophotography and Imaging' started by Ed D, Dec 19, 2018.

Orion Nebula - Wide Field in B&W

Started by Ed D on Dec 19, 2018 at 7:41 AM

5 Replies 659 Views 1 Likes

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  1. Ed D

    Ed D Well-Known Member

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    Ed D, Dec 19, 2018
    #1
    I can hear your thoughts now: "Ed, PLEASE find something else to image".

    Yesterday I received my intervalometer which can free me from sitting behind the camera manually activating the shutter. As you can imagine, I wanted to try it out on a familiar target. I also wanted to try polar alignment using SharpCap to see if I could lengthen my exposure times while maintaining reasonably round stars. Testing on a known and familiar object lets me do a better evaluation.

    Success on both counts. I'm very happy with the intervalometer and the way it works. Nice to be able to go inside and make hot chocolate while the equipment runs itself. I'm also happy that I was able to double my exposure time and actually end up with better stars and no scope shift from manually triggering the shutter each time.

    My intention was to trash all the captures at the end of the testing, much less post anything. But, this B&W image turned out nicely (not perfect) and I decided to keep it. OK, I'm going to try something different, maybe a galaxy, if I can find one in this light polluted soup.

    Ed D

    Orion Nebula 2018 12-18 JPEG.jpg
     
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  2. Seer

    Seer Well-Known Member

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    Seer, Dec 19, 2018
    #2
    WOW Ed that is great. :)
    I can even see 1981 in your photo. I just started a thread about it.
     
  3. Ed D

    Ed D Well-Known Member

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    Ed D, Dec 19, 2018
    #3
    No longer neglected and getting the recognition it deserves. Thanks, Donald. Glad you liked the image and got something out of it.

    Ed D
     
  4. Orion25

    Orion25 Well-Known Member

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    Orion25, Dec 19, 2018
    #4
    I don't often get to see M42 in black and white. Nice job, Ed :)
     
  5. Ed D

    Ed D Well-Known Member

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    Ed D, Dec 19, 2018
    #5
    Thanks, Reggie. B&W photography has always been one of my favorites.

    I was just showing my daughter, who is home for the Winter Break, the image. I pointed out to her how many more stars appear in the field now that I can take exposures longer than 30 seconds. The 1 minute exposures at the very least quadrupled the visible stars compared to previous 30 second exposures.

    I think my next "victim" is going to be a wide field of the Alpha Persei cluster. Should be fun.

    Ed
     
    Last edited: Dec 19, 2018
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  6. Pleiades

    Pleiades Well-Known Member

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    Pleiades, Dec 20, 2018
    #6
    Awesome! I love M42. It was my first DSO
     

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