M42 - Orion Nebula

Rob Dipple

13 January 2012

24 x 150s for the bulk of the image.
24 x 60s and 30 x 15s to bring back the core and Trapezium.

All at ISO 800.

Each set stacked in DSS to create three images. Each was then processed in Photoshop to bring out the detail. A lot of processing on the 150s stack but minimal on the 60 and 15s ones. Finally the three images were pasted as seperate layer in a new Photoshop image. This allowed me to align the three images.

A mask of the blown core area was then created to use as a copy area in the 60s layer. This area was then copied from the 60s image into the 150s. This was then repeated for 15s image.

Final tweak in PS and de-noised with Neat Image.

For the record Canon EOS 1000D on Skywatcher 150mm F5 refractor, Guided with PHD.