Jewels In The Sword of Orion - Explored
Have not been very well lately and unfortunately it is ongoing. So haven't been about.
I did managed to get some imaging done this month (weather has been hopeless as usual - so not helping!)
This is an image of the emission nebula, "The Great Orion Nebula" M42, with the attendant reflection nebula "The Running Man" Sharpless Sh2-279 to the right. Both these beautiful systems are found in the sword area of the magnificent constellation of Orion.
M42 is one of the brightest nebula in our skies, lying at a distance of over 1300 light years. This massive cloud of glowing gas and dust is a stellar nursery and is the closest massive star forming region to earth.
The Running Man Nebula to the right is so-called because many observers liken its appearance to a human running with arms flailing! (you might need to use a bit of imagination!) This is a reflection nebula. This means it is only visible to us because light from an illumination source, such as embedded stars, lights up the surrounding gas and dust.
Extensive dust clouds can be seen throughout the whole image.
Imaged with a Skywatcher Esprit 120ED refractor fitted with a focal reducer (scope at f5.4) and a ZWO 2600MC camera.
115 (60s) and 10 (10s) guided exposures.
Temp. matched Darks
Flats, Dark Flats.
Processed using Astro Pixel Processor and finished with Photoshop 2022.
Jewels In The Sword of Orion - Explored
Have not been very well lately and unfortunately it is ongoing. So haven't been about.
I did managed to get some imaging done this month (weather has been hopeless as usual - so not helping!)
This is an image of the emission nebula, "The Great Orion Nebula" M42, with the attendant reflection nebula "The Running Man" Sharpless Sh2-279 to the right. Both these beautiful systems are found in the sword area of the magnificent constellation of Orion.
M42 is one of the brightest nebula in our skies, lying at a distance of over 1300 light years. This massive cloud of glowing gas and dust is a stellar nursery and is the closest massive star forming region to earth.
The Running Man Nebula to the right is so-called because many observers liken its appearance to a human running with arms flailing! (you might need to use a bit of imagination!) This is a reflection nebula. This means it is only visible to us because light from an illumination source, such as embedded stars, lights up the surrounding gas and dust.
Extensive dust clouds can be seen throughout the whole image.
Imaged with a Skywatcher Esprit 120ED refractor fitted with a focal reducer (scope at f5.4) and a ZWO 2600MC camera.
115 (60s) and 10 (10s) guided exposures.
Temp. matched Darks
Flats, Dark Flats.
Processed using Astro Pixel Processor and finished with Photoshop 2022.