Here’s my first attempt at acquiring and processing SHO data with the Hubble palette. I did not get as much Hα as planned, so may want to add more in the future. The star shapes are atrocious around the edges of the image, so perhaps I should try stopping the lens down a bit next time (this was done full open at f/2.8). My narrowband filters are clearly not parfocal, and this was most apparent with the OIII filter, so I’m going to have to figure out the needed focal adjustments. My first set of OIII data was way out of focus, so I redid the OIII on the second night as a storm was approaching and high clouds were beginning to encroach, and the OIII data clearly are not as good as the other channels. I also had the usual problem of trying to handle the very high dynamic range in M42, and did not do so well this time. The halos around the brighter stars are also bothersome and I don’t know how to handle them. Nevertheless, this is a really beautiful patch of sky with a huge amount of stuff going on. It’s amazing to see all the glowing hydrogen. The Milky Way is certainly not a “dead” galaxy as far as star formation goes. I’ll certainly work on this some more.

Date: 17-18 Jan 2017

Subject: Orion Molecular Cloud Complex

Scope: Tamron 135 mm f/2.8 lens

Filters: ZWO 31 mm diameter unmounted 7nm Hα, SII, and OIII

Mount: EQ-6 (EQMOD)+PEC

Guiding: Finder/Guider+DSI IIc+PHD 2.6.2.4 (Win 10 ASCOM)

Camera: ASI1600MM-Cool, -20 °C, acquired SII, Hα, OIII 1x1, Gain 300 Offset 50

Acquisition: Sequence Generator Pro 2.6.0.4

Exposure: 8x300+20x120+40x30 s Hα, 30x180 s SII, 60x120 s OIII

Stacking: Neb 4.1.2, flats & darks, trans+rot align, Nebulosity 1.5σ stack and align.

Processing: Hubble palette combine with Annie’s Astro Actions v. 7, extensive stretching, deconvolution, and denoting with StarTools 1.4.305 (oops, I had intended to use a newer beta), a bit of additional tweaking with Carboni’s Astronomy Tools in Photoshop CC 2014.