In this competition we are looking for images of the Trapezium at the heart of M42, the great Orion nebula. We normally think of the Trapezium as 4 stars but in large telescopes you can make out other stars, so all you need to do is submit an image of the Trapezium with more than 4 stars.

Sounds simple, but the main 4 stars of the trapezium are bright making it difficult to resolve the other stars.

This is possible in an 8″ telescope – possibly smaller.

Tips:

  • use lucky imaging with short exposures.

Images by Simon Dawes

The-Trapwzium

Image by Simon Dawes EQ6 Pro, MN190mm, ZWO ASI1600, 500x 0.5s exposures. THIS IMAGE IS DISQUALIFIED FROM THE COMPETITION – SIMON IS THE JUDGE!

Images by Richard Bohner

IMG_4653

Here is a photo of Trapezium cluster I took a few weeks ago with my iPhone through my 102mm Maksutov scope. I think the magnification is about 100X. Don’t know ISO because it was taken with phone camera. You can see five stars. I plan to take out my bigger scope and try again. “Cheers”