This film based image was made possible by a long series of short to deep exposures that was guided faithfully by the ST-4 Autoguider. The core is normally overexposed to get the faint outer nebulosity in standard images, but here a technique called Luminance Layering was used. This entails a series of exposures in this case ranging from 90 minutes, down to 5 minutes and combined in Photoshop into one final image, with the shortest exposure on the bottom of the stack. The over exposed regions are removed successively from each layer leaving a cut out to see the layer below. This method retains both bright and dim nebulosities in one image. CCD imagery can employ this same technique for especially bright objects.
Instrument: 12.5" f/5 Home made Newtonian Camera: Pentax K1000, Auto guided with ST-4 Exposure: 90, 45, 22, 12, 5 mins combined on hypered Kodak PJ400 (Now LE400) Location: Payson, Arizona Elevation: 5150 ft. Sky: Seeing 8/10, Transparency 8/10 Outside Temperature: 32 F Processing: Photoshop, PW Pro.