I had only a short amount of time to quickly capture this image of the Trapezium in M42. The A, B, C, and D components are easily seen here; in addition, I believe the E component is visible as an elongation of the A component. I had hoped to image the quartet during the recent eclipse of A, but I was clouded out that evening.
This second image belies the above hope. It's a sum of 12 separate exposures (each about 10 seconds in length) of the Trapezium, and the E component is nowhere in sight. Digital processing to remove chromatic separation proved fruitless. I think my exposure times are too short, and that I need to take a very long exposure (for unguided shots, that is), perhaps around 3 to 5 minutes in length. We'll see how that goes. Ultra-fine focusing could also be my problem.
Otherwise I'm quite pleased with the general lack of lopsided color in this image.
Copyright (c) 1998 Brian Tung