The core of the Orion nebula is extremely bright, lit up by a cluster of young stars (the Trapezium). However, the surrounding outer regions are much dimmer and thus challenging to capture, especially from a city center with strong light pollution. My Ha filter really shines here, as it largely removes the effect of light pollution.
I tried some new post-processing techniques to compress the dynamic range, and to show as much detail as possible in all layers. This required strong noise reduction for the outer parts, and separate short exposures for the core.
I used David Ault's method to remove a filter reflection on the bright star Iota Orionis:
http://trappedphotons.com/blog/?p=616
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