From: Mark Gaffney <markgaffney@me.com>

Date: October 21, 2010 4:05:24 PM MDT

To: Astro_IIDC@yahoogroups.com

Subject: latest M 42

Hi Everyone,

Just reading about Ray`s Jupiter, has stimulated me to post these shots of M 42 taken with my Nikon D5000 recently & guided with Mount control in Astro IIDC using a Kwiq guidescope & my PGR Scorpion 20SOM.

This is with an Antares f6.3 reducer on my C9.25 & CG-5 mount. ( I hope to be able to upgrade to a basic EQ-6 mount sometime next year..)

The first shot is at 300 seconds ISO 800 but my focusing is a bit off with my Bahtinov mask probably because the stars are a little smaller than usual with the reducer...

The second of these shots was calibrated unfortunately I think as M 42 was right on the meridian (& the mount stops tracking briefly) & was 600 seconds at ISO 800.

I`d set-up to take a number of subs (which were later cancelled) & retired to house where I consulted my new version of Sky Safari (was Sky Voyager ) on my iPod Touch but had mistakenly entered longitude in the latitude section. Hence I had an erroneous idea of where M 42 actually was..

I was fairly pleased with what looks like it might be some detail in the nebula with the 10 minute exposure..

M 42 is rising here earlier & earlier so I`ll be trying it again eventually..!

Mark.