Two new images from the past week. M42 (yeah, again), and the
Horsehead/Flame area. Both were my first shots at using H-Alpha for
color luminance portions of the stacked final image. I think it
worked pretty well with some help from Mr. Gendler ;-) The images are
online at:

http://www.regulusastro.com/regulus/photos/text/m42hargb.html

http://www.regulusastro.com/regulus/photos/text/b33hargb.html

The Horsehead was the tough one:
This was a real challenge. The bright star Aniltak provided enough
blooming to drive any sane person crazy. This is a color composite
using Hydrogen Alpha, Red, Green and Blue filters within the SBIG CFW-
8. The luminance later is a combination of Red and Hydrogen Alpha
images to fill out the layer a bit. The times are as follows:
Hydrogen Alpha: 60 minutes
Red for Luminance: 10 minutes
Red: 20 minutes
Green: 20 minutes
Blue: 32 minutes

The images all had darks, flats and biases used for calibration. The
images were then aligned in MaxImDL, then an RGB tiff file creates.
The H-Alpha and Red luminance files were then summed and saved as a
master luminance tiff file. Both tiff files were then brought into
Adobe Photoshop and stacked in the classic luminance layering method
with the H-alpha/Red luminance at 100% opacity. Blooms and blemishes,
including one jet aircraft trail, were then removed. The final image
was then saved as a jpeg for the web.


Clear skies,

~johnb