This is my favorite image, made over several nights with
a combination of 5 minute hydrogen alpha exposures, and
30 second images of the bright Trapezium area at center of
image. I like the way the dust clouds and gray nebulosity
surrounding the nebula show up in this image.

This M42 consists of a 100 minute luminance layer consisting of
20 5-minute 13nm HA subs. Color was added with 5 minutes red,
5 minutes green, and 7.5 minutes blue. All color subs were 30 seconds
in duration. I attempted to bring out the nebulosity on periphery
of the red interior of M42.

Done with AP 130 @ F/4.5, SXV H9 CCD guided by an SBIG STV/efinder.