First attempt at M42 Orion Nebula

Short session last night, only tried a few shoots of M42 - Orion Nebula. Decided to focus on this nebula for a while and try and use it to learn how to shoot nebulas and understand the processes involved before getting distracted by the idea of upgrading kit etc, so took some initial shoots to learn from.

Exposure time vs trailing going to be an issue. Tried 3.2sec, 2.5secs, and 1 sec, and various ISOs. Even 1 sec showed trailing, which isn’t ideal! Even with trailing though, the images are awe-inspiring - you can actually see the clouds.

On a 2 sec exposure, iso25600 had the best detail, though iso12800 was still good:

Photo of Orion Nebula with more of dust clouds showing — 2s, iso25600

Photo of Orion Nebula with less of dust clouds showing — 2s, iso12800

Getting the focus right was also key (see below), but made difficult by even a tiny turn of the focus dials introducing a lot of shake, and then having to track the telescope back to centre once its stopped moving. Helps me understand why people recommend upgrading the focus mechanism or investing in an autofocus (one day!).

Photo of Orion Nebula with some light trailing — 3.2 secs at iso8000, trailing worse and less detail

Out of focus image of Orion Nebula — Also 3.2secs / iso8000 - but focus wrong here

-End-

Simple stargazing

Applying the 500 rule