Imaged from Beckwith Township, Ontario, Canada.
Space dust is pervasive; as can be clearly seen from this image.
This image is the result of 5 full hours of integration; and a different approach to processing.
This time, I separated the LRGB image into two component images: a Luminance Image (where all of the detail resides); and an RGB Image (which has all the colour detail). I processed these separately so that I could maximize the colour in the RGB Image; and detail in the Luminance Image; then recombined the two into the final image.
The result is a MUCH cleaner image with way less noise in the dust lanes.
Messier 42 (M42), the Great Nebula in the Constellation Orion, is an emission-reflection nebula located south of Orion's belt. With an apparent magnitude of 4.0, the Orion Nebula is one of the brightest nebulae in the sky and is visible to the naked eye. It lies at a distance of 1,344 light years from Earth and is the nearest stellar nursery to Earth. The nebula has the designation NGC 1976 in the New General Catalogue.
Messier 43 (M43), also known as De Mairan’s Nebula, is part of the larger Orion Nebula (M42); and is separated from the main nebula by a large, dark dust lane. It has the designation NGC 1982 in the New General Catalogue.
Both nebulae are part of the Orion Molecular Cloud Complex, a large group of emission and reflection nebulae, H II regions, dark clouds, and newly formed stars occupying several degrees of the sky between Orion’s Belt and Orion’s Sword. The complex is one of the most active star-forming regions visible in the sky.
Sh2-279 (alternatively designated S279 or Sharpless 279) is a bright nebulae that includes a reflection nebula located in the constellation Orion. It is the northernmost part of the asterism known as Orion's Sword, lying 0.6° north of the Orion Nebula. The reflection nebula embedded in Sh2-279 is popularly known as the Running Man Nebula. The entire region is often referred to in literature as NGC 1977.
Nikon D5300 (unmodified); Sky-Watcher ED80 Pro Refractor and a Tele Vue 0.8x Reducer/Flattener @ 480mm / f/6; ISO 200; IDAS LPS-P2 Filter; Celestron AVX mount; guided with SSAG; and PHD2; 75 x 4 minute subs (total integration is 300 minutes or 5 hours).
Shot in RAW; stacked using the new 64-bit Deep Sky Stacker (without calibration frames); processed in Pixinsight and Photoshop CC.