Messier 42--my Last Image of 2017

It seems almost obligatory at this time of year to post images of M42. The big problem in most images is that it is difficult to prevent the core (the Trapezium Stars) from "blowing out" if you want to capture the fainter and more subtle aspects of the nebulosity. Of course, post processing can correct this problem and many astroimagers capture data at different integration times which they combine with packages such as Photoshop and Pixelinsight.

The image below is a stack of integrations captured so that the Trapezium stars were not completely blown out--a series of 15 x 2-second (!) integrations captured with a Mallincam DSm and 125mm MAK with the Mallincam MFR-II-x focal reducer (about f/7.5). The image is the last one I took in 2017, and also the last one I took with the ZEQ25 before it went in for repair.

I processed the image in Photoshop, but I did nothing special to process the core. The result is quite pleasing, preserving some core detail while showing some of the fainter nebulosity. The strange 'Z' - shaped artifacts on the left size of the image are trails left by geostationary satellites.