The great Orion Nebula (Messier 42, NGC 1976) is not simple to observe. Seeing and atmospheric diffraction cause small stellar "spectra" instead of spot images. This can be corrected with special software. Standard tools, like Photoshop, are overstrained with the enormous range of the intensity distribution in the image. Image intensities were stretched with a cubic function.
Observational data
| Telescope: | Vixen VC200L, focal reducer f/6.4, Sphinx SXD |
| Camera: | Canon EOS 60D-a, 400 ISO |
| Filter | Astronomik UV/IR block filter |
| Exposure: | 40 x 30s |
| Calibration: | Dark (400 images), sky flatfield (100 images) |
| Image Processing: | Shift & add with correction of subpixel movement |
| Date of exposure: | 23 March 2012, 19:40h MEZ |
| Software: | ArgusPro SE |
| Remark: | - |