Orion Nebula - but ruined by telescope reflections! (Mike Jaworski)

Orion Nebula - but ruined by telescope reflections!

Revision title: G2V values + HDR recombine

The Orion Nebula is one of the most popular images out there. It's super bright, easy to find, very colorful and fun. Everyone knows it so well, it should be SUPER OBVIOUS there's problems in this image. The circular arcs on the image are reflections within my telescope that are reaching the sensor and, basically, royally messing it up! There are plenty of stars in the vicinity that are candidates of the source. I eliminated stray street-lights and the like while imaging, so this is definitely sourced by a star.

So why post it? Well, my image gallery is full of examples where I've improved from an earlier attempt. I'm posting it in that vein. It's also up to help indicate to people what serious problems look like. Everyone posts beautiful, perfect images, it's not always easy finding clear examples of problems that might help someone else trouble-shoot a setup or process. Well, here's one of those.

I'm also posting it because this is my first HDR combination image. Two different sets of data are used in an attempt to avoid blowing out the core of the nebula. I have one set of data based around 30s subframes and another with 240s subframes. The fully processed images are blended in GIMP, but only a *very small* amount of blending is done. I hope you can't notice. It's been a learning process for me.

Coma is still obvious. All I want for Christmas is the supply chain to get sorted so I can get a new OTA and coma corrector!

Original
B
C
Final
D

B

Title: Now with less jpeg compression!

Description: This is a PNG upload. I noticed too late that the jpeg quality was seriously lacking in the core.

Uploaded: ...

C

Title: Zero RGB bias reductions - Trust the G2V!

Description: This image is redone from the 240s data. I spent more time studying the StarTools module instructions and ended up pushing the data a bit harder. Too much? Main thing was to see what it really looks like without changing the RGB biases and trusting in the G2V calibration I had done. It still required a "Cap Green = 100%", but that's it.

Uploaded: ...

D

Title: G2V values + HDR recombine

Description: The last version was a quick experiment with the color arrangement. I've added back in the 30s image to bring out the core and a couple of the brighter star cores.

Uploaded: ...

Cloudy Nights
INDI Users
Beginners AP

	Distinct awarded users	Total awarded images
Image of the day
Top picks
Top pick nominations

	Image of the day	Top pick	Top pick nominations	Total submitted
Deep sky
Solar system
Extremely wide field
Star trails
Northern lights
Noctilucent clouds
Landscape

	Image of the day	Top pick	Top pick nominations	Total submitted
Backyard
Traveller
Own remote observatory
Amateur hosting facility
Public amaeteur data
Professional, scientific grade data
Mix of multiple sources
Other
Unknown

Submitted The date and time when you submitted this image for IOTD/TP consideration.	...
Views by Submitters (available since September 19th, 2023) Every image is assigned to 50% of available Submitters. In the event that at least 80% of them don't view the image before its time in the IOTD/TP process expires, it's assigned to the other 50% of Submitters and the process begins anew.
Promotions by Submitters When 3 distinct Submitters promote the image, it moves on to the next stage of the process: evaluation for Top Pick status. This requirement, in addition to anonymization of images and distribution to only a subset of them, prevents biases and ensures that the best images are selected.
Promotions by Reviewers When 3 distinct Reviewers promote the image, it moves on to the next stage of the process: evaluation for IOTD status.
Early dismissal Staff members have a lot of images to inspect on a daily basis, and they can dismiss images if they believe they don't meet the requirements for IOTD/TP selection. If an image is dismissed 5 times, it's removed from the process. This streamlines the process and ensures that any bias present in promotions could be overruled by other staff members.

Status	Advanced success
Started	...
Astrometry.net job	5277761
PixInsight job	3BXPAJFBI6BNP79Q0MSFZISBXBNA03B2
PixInsight queue size	n/a
PixInsight stage	TASK_LOG

RA (center)	05h35m20s.33
RA (top/left)	05h30m13s.49
RA (top/right)	05h37m19s.82
RA (bottom/right)	05h40m26s.53
RA (bottom/left)	05h33m21s.74

Dec (center)	-05°18′46″.5
Dec (top/left)	-05°25′42″.2
Dec (top/right)	-06°29′24″.8
Dec (bottom/right)	-05°11′47″.3
Dec (bottom/left)	-04°08′10″.7

Image Index:

Contribution Index (beta):