Colours in the Trapezium in M42

[almcl]

I have an issue with M42 (image below from a couple of weeks ago.)

It isn't visible from my location very often and when it is, it doesn't stay in view for very long (trees, houses, clouds and a northerly location).

So a few short duration lights is usually all that get captured. The problem I have is that the core round the Trapezium invariably comes out green. I don't see this colour on anyone else's images (actually the vast majority have no core colour at all as it is often burned-out white).

This bothers me, is my colouring flawed (it's there on both a DSLR images from 10 years ago and more recent ones with an ASI 2600 MC) or, as one very experienced imager told me in correspondence a while ago that he had deliberately edited out the green in his image, is it that imagers are deliberately suppressing the green colour in obedience to the 'No green stars in space' mantra?

The colours in the Running Man nebula (NGC 1977), by contrast, look similar to many on-line versions, so why is the Trapezium different?

Suggestions gratefully received.

Autosave002.jpg (439.67 KiB) Viewed 88484 times

[admin]

The green is correct and is a sign of a well-processed image. M42 is one of the few objects that is O-III ("doubly ionised oxygen") emission dominant.

Keep doing what you're doing and call out people that doctor their images to remove the green O-III emissions!

See also here on results of spectroscopy.

[grc02]

Lovely image and something I have not been able replicate. I'm not sure why anyone would want to edit out the green.

[almcl]

The green is correct and is a sign of a well-processed image. M42 is one of the few objects that is O-III ("doubly ionised oxygen") emission dominant.

Keep doing what you're doing and call out people that doctor their images to remove the green O-III emissions!

Thank you, Ivo! I thought we had discussed this a while ago, but I couldn't find our discussion anywhere. I'll keep a note of those links as well; my googling didn't throw up anything nearly as useful.

Lovely image and something I have not been able replicate. I'm not sure why anyone would want to edit out the green.

Thank you.

I think there's a somewhat mistaken belief that because there are 'no green stars in space', any green in an object must be wrong. And while double ionized oxygen is not common, it seems a shame that it gets eliminated when it should be there.

[decay]

In this case it is really easy to prove: Take off the camera and replace it with an eyepiece. The Orion Nebula is the only deep space object which is bright enough to stimulate human eye's colour perception. It is easily visible, even with my 8" newt under a B5+ sky. And it looks great. And green (The red parts are too dark to see.)

Best regards, Dietmar.