M42, M43 & NGC 1977
Orions Sword
Imager: Peter Morrison

Imaged Date:	11/21/2009
Object Information:	Orions Sword featuring the Orion Nebula (M42) and the Running Man nebula (NGC 1977). The smear in open cluster NGC 1981 is the remains of Comet Linear 217P that didn't average out during processing. A full size crop: http://aisig.sdaa.org/astroblogDetail.asp?imgID=2247&UserId=40 An animated image of the comet from the 9/25/2009 data is here: http://aisig.sdaa.org/astroblogDetail.asp?imgID=2212&UserID=40
Imaged at:	Tierra Del Sol & Mt. Laguna
Equipment:	Optics - TV-85, TV 0.8x focal reducer Mount - Astro-Physics Mach1GTO Camera - Canon 350D
Exposure Information:	54x300 + 24x30 + 20x2 @ISO800, Guided with PHD
Camera Control Software:	ImagesPlus 3.8
Image Processing Software:	ImagesPlus 3.8: Acquisition, calibrate, align, combine and processing. Transparency layering was used to merge the three exposures. MS Digital Image Suite: Resize & crop Data captured on three nights (TDS - 9/25/2009 & 10/16/2009, Mt. Laguna - 11/21/2009). I am not entirely happy with the result, so would be interested to see what others could do with the data. The three aligned stacks are available for download if you want to play with them. http://cid-90a8de46c8cb4fb6.skydrive.live.com/browse.aspx/.Public Update 12/04/2009: MS Digital Image Suite: Use manual transparency layer effect to reduce core burnout Update 12/13/2009: MS Digital Image Suite: Increase color temperature, increase saturation Update 12/24/2009: MS Digital Image Suite: Minor sharpening