One of the most iconic targets in the night sky, and one that I’ve never had the chance to capture before.

Normally imaged in broadband, I’ve had to image this in Narrowband whilst I await the delivery of a new filter wheel and some RGB filters.

Presented in the SHO palette, this image is a 2 panel mosaic of M42 and The Running Man Nebula.  Quite a different target to capture due to it’s brightness (it’s visible to the naked eye in dark enough skies!) – I’ve had to blend a mixture of 30, 60 and 180 second subframes to try and stop the brightness washing out the core and I don’t think I’ve quite achieved it. In hindsight, I think I should have taken some 15 and maybe even 5 second subs to blend in.  I’ve also used a Luminance layer shot through a simple IR/UV cut filter.

I’ll definitely return to this target once my new filters arrive!

Click the image for the full resolution version.