This is probably the first object I ever looked at in the night sky and it is something I have always wanted to image in detail. Unfortunately it isn’t possible to see it from my observatory but my neighbour has recently trimmed some trees back giving a small gap of about 3hrs imaging if I move me gear to behind the shed. Ideal for a portable rig.
M42 a large object in a rich field of dust so wide-field imaging is best. This was first-light with my new Staradventurer GTi mount. Stripping down the Altair Astro 70 EDT-F to its lightest configuration gives me an imaging payload of 4.1kg. The Staradventurer GTi is rated for 5kg so a good margin. I was surprised how good tracking was, well below the resolution of the image.
Imaging: 70mm Altair Astro EDT-F, 0.8 FF/FR, Touptek IMX533 colour camera and a 2″IR/UV filter. Guiding with a 30mm guide and ASI120mm. Integration time around 3 hrs. Imaged: 02/01/2024
I shall probably reprocess this image to make more core detail visible, I was pretty conservative in my approach. I don’t like it too saturated or over sharp. I’m just getting used to the Pixinsight Generalized Hyperbolic Stretch process – I think there is more detail to reveal.
The last time I imaged it was in 2010 with my Canon 550d and lens. I don’t think it was a bad attempt given my skill at the time and the lens I was using:
