Spent almost 10 hours on processing this image and still not 100% satisfied with the result, I could easily sink another 10 hours into getting a more pleasing look. Still, I think it's good enough to share with you at this point in time.
Sword of Orion
From left to right:
M42 - Great Orion Nebula
M43 - De Mairan's Nebula
NGC 1977 - The Running Man
That's a nice image. How did you capture it? Telephoto lens, composite? DSLR or multiple filters?
My guess is a Newtonian from the diffraction spikes and the coma
Correct, need to get a Paracorr to address coma, but they let you pay through the nose for one.
I had a paracorr, they are optimized for longer focal lengths... like 1,000+ Id recommend getting the GPU corrector instead or the Teleskope service 3-element MaxField Newtonian Coma Corrector
Thinking of getting this one here https://www.astroshop.eu/flatteners-correctors-reducers/omegon-pro-koma-...
Never heard of it... the very well regarded GPU or the TS maxfield (for larger sensors) is what I would get.
Captured this image with a 200/5 Newtonian and a Nikon D850, about 200 frames with 5s exposure each. Stacked in PixInsight, edited in PixInsight and Photoshop. No composite.
I see. Thanks. That is quite a large field of view.
I made a similar image many years ago through my own Newtonian, but it was on film - and not nearly as detailed or as large as this. It showed only M42, but the color was quite similar. I can't remember the type of film or exposure or anything. Probably Kodachrome for several tens of seconds. I think this was around 1980!
I'm always struck by how different this object looks photographically vs. visually. To the eye (to mine, at least) it looks faintly green, from the oxygen emission. But of course, the strongest emission is hydrogen, which is very red. I can see the green in your image, in the outer shell of the nebula, and I guess the purple is a combination of red and green. But the eye cannot pick out the red, it seems.
Anyway, lovely image.
I think it is fantastic.