Orion Nebula (M42) with Canon T5i on a Fixed Tripod

Shortly after receiving the Canon T5i for Christmas, I went out and did a series of test shots which quickly filled my smaller memory card with 18 megapixel RAW files. I was really pleased with the results, but only got 42 light frames that night. Recently, I was able to give M42 an honest attempt using the fixed tripod stacking method and my new camera with a larger memory card.

I'm still waiting for nicer weather to break out my motor driven EQ mount. I'm a little intimidated by it, and I don't want to fumble with it for the first time in freezing temperatures. So fixed tripod stacking is still the name of the game!

M42 and M43, stack of 107 subs, 77 darks, 70 bias, ISO 3200, 300mm, f/5.6, 1.3 sec

It came out a little bright. That's the trade off I guess, I like how you can see a lot of the very faint nebulosity - making M42 look as big as I've seen it. On the other hand, the interior is over exposed and sort of washed out. I don't do enough of these to really work on my post-processing skills. All in due time!

New Camera (T5i) Test on Fixed Tripod Stacking Method: Andromeda, Orion, Pleiades

I'm easing in to using my new camera, the Canon T5i, so I did a couple test shots on familiar objects using a technique I already know: Stacking short exposure images from a DSLR on a fixed tripod. I wasn't going for a new personal best or anything, but I wanted to take some short stacks to see how the new camera compares to the Rebel XT.

The first thing I noticed was that my memory card fills up A LOT faster with 18 megapixel RAW files. I only got about 150 shots where with the 8 megapixel XT I was getting closer to 250 in a single memory card. I actually filled the memory card, dumped the files, and went back out to shoot more a total of 3 times to take advantage of what seemed to be the one clear night in December.

Andromeda (M31) stack of 24 subs, 36 darks, 12 bias at 300mm, f/5.6, ISO 3200, 1.3 sec

Orion Nebula (M42) crop from stack of 42 subs, 36 darks, 12 bias at 300mm, f/5.6, ISO 3200, 1.3 sec

Orion Nebula 300mm crop, this time at ISO 6400, 11 subs, 23 darks, 21 bias, f/5.6, 1.3 sec

Pleiades (M45) stack of 34 subs, 23 darks, 21 bias, 300mm, f/5.6, ISO 6400, 1.3 sec

Although I only did short stacks, I may have inadvertently achieved my best effort on the Orion Nebula with very minimal post-processing. Rather than working for an hour to bring out nebulosity, I had a fair amount of gray cloudiness emerge just from the fact that my ISO was higher. I think I like the ISO 3200 Orion better than the ISO 6400 due to the reduced noise. Either way, very promising for just a test shot of less than 50 light frames - and only 11 light frames for the ISO 6400 image!

Adding 112 subs to my Orion stack

In February I stacked a series of 168 subs, 30 darks, and 30 bias frames to create my best attempt at the Orion Nebula (M42). Now, with Orion getting lower and lower in the sky, I wanted to try adding to the stack before the constellation dips below the horizon. Unless I get an exceptionally clear night, this is probably going to be my last Orion attempt of the season.

I added another 112 subs to my stack (no additional dark or bias frames) for a total of 280 subs. Because I noticed quite a few were trailing or out of focus, I kept only the best 70% for a total of 196 subs - which I believe is around 4 min 21 sec total exposure time.

This new set was shot using the same ISO and magnification, but at 1.3 sec rather than 1.6 sec. Deep Sky Stacker gave me a warning message, but handled the difference in exposure times remarkably well.

196 frames at ISO 1600, 300mm, f/5.6, 1.3 and 1.6 s frames

This is a fairly quick pass at processing, I'm a little rusty since I almost never do deep sky stuff! Not much in the way of color, but the dust cloud is large and clearly visible. I also captured a whiff of the Running Man Nebula about 1/2 degree above the Orion Nebula. The running man is actually a combination of 3 objects (NGC 1973, NGC 1975 and NGC 1977) separated by some dark space in roughly the shape of a person. In my image you can only see a little blob of gray.

Reprocessed M42 with larger dust cloud

After watching a couple stellar video tutorials by Anna Morris, I decided to put some of her techniques to work on my M42 stack from last month.

Here is my reprocessed image, with emphasis on bringing more of the dust clouds forward.

And here is the same image with an insert comparing my previous processing attempt to this one. I'd say there's some improvement!