Belt of Orion

[Noel Carboni]

Here's an image I did with my astro collaborator Greg Parker earlier this year. These are the three belt stars of the familiar Winter constellation Orion. Betcha didn't know there wer so many nebulae in there, not to mention the rich field of stars too dim to see with the unaided eye.

Just at the very left edge you can see the Horsehead Nebula (upside-down) peeking in, and at the top edge is the Flame Nebula. When framing this image we could see only the bright belt stars, which we centered. I couldn't bring myself to crop off the Horsehead entirely from the processed image, though I do have a completely separate image I'll post soon that features the whole Horsehead.

This image represents well over 4 hours of exposure time, and something like double that in processing time.

-Noel

[Roman Kurywczak]

Hi Noel,
I don't mind the color in the ULC of the Nebula as it looks like it is almost shooting out the brighter stars.Love the star burst on them also. We don't often get to see these type of images and it's a real treat.........so keep them coming.

[Maxis Gamez]

This is outstanding. The colors, the stars...... just wonderful.

[Michael Pancier]

where did you shoot this from? must have been dark. Looks amazing!

[Judd Patterson]

Noel is the astrophotography master! I had no idea that an image like this would take around 8 hours to process...your dedication and expertise combined into another stunning piece.

[Noel Carboni]

Thanks. :)

Most astroimages actually do take hours to process, especially to produce world class images; the general rule of thumb is that the processing time will usually at least equal the exposure time.

It's just that we push the limits of the photographic equipment so hard that every step of developing the data into imagery requires tender loving care. In order to get the maximum amount of imagery out of the few photons falling on the Earth, we take many, many images of the same object and stack them, averaging the photosite readings. This both increases the accuracy of the data and reduces the noise. The stacked datasets represent linear measurement of light levels - akin to a "Raw" mode file from a digital camera, but with much greater dynamic range. This must be converted, using complex math to an image that's natural looking and which does not "blow out" the brightest stars, while maintaining some detail in the dimmest parts. Then I must deal with the hot/dead pixels, and the fact that the telescope does not illuminate the imager with an equal light level all across - in astrophotography terms, the field luminance is not "flat". Once the image is flattened, light pollution is compensated for, satellite trails removed (it's surprising how many satellites cross one's field of view in several hours of exposure), other defects removed (e.g., secondary filter reflections, darkened spots due to dust on the imager), and finally noise reduction (depending on the accuracy of the data), deconvolution sharpening, brightness/color balance. Typically I do all this at either the full 6 megapixel resolution of the camera we use, or higher, so as not to lose any important detail.

What many folks don't know is that while the light pollution in the skies greatly limits how much we can see visually, it has a lesser effect on digital imagery, insofar as it is purely additive (i.e., light from stars adds to the light reflected off the atmosphere) it can be removed digitally. There are astrophotographers shooting amazing images even from urban locations. Don't get me wrong - the light pollution level does, in fact, limit how "deep" you can go (i.e., the dimmest the objects you can image) - but the technology does afford us some ability to deal with it.

By the way this was captured at my friend Greg's observatory in the south of England, near the New Forest park. Our collaboration is virtual via the Internet; he catches the photons and sends the raw data over to me to process into imagery. We work closely together to plan the equipment setup and to pick which objects to photograph.

I do have my own telescope setup, and I'll post some images I've taken through it from time to time too.

Thanks again for your comments.

-Noel

[Robert Amoruso]

Noel,

Thanks for all the details on the image making process. Exceptional work.