The Orion Nebula, M42 is a lovely sight visually and is strikingly beautiful when imaged in the light from the rich field of excited hydrogen gas that is feeding star formation in its core. The inset shows such an image taken with a Modified DSLR camera and a 12 nm Ha filter. The main image is a Topographic representation of the nebula done with AIP4win software.
Details - Location - Yellowpoint Lodge, Vancouver Island. Equipment - 105mm WO refractor with modified Canon T1i camera and Astronomik 12nm H-alpha filter on HEQ5 mount. Exposure - 126 - 30s frames at ISO 3200 with 8 flat frames for calibration. Processing in Images Plus, Photoshop and AIP4win.