Nebulae of The Sword of Orion Complex (Starless)
This is a starless image of the Great Orion Nebula (M42) with the reflection nebula Sharpless Sh2-279 the "Running Man Nebula" situated above.
The "little" coma-shaped nebula above and separated from M42 by a dark dust lane is M43 or De Mairan's Nebula.
All form part of the sword region in the magnificent constellation of Orion.
I used Starnet to remove the attendant stars in the image and then concentrated on the nebulae in order to highlight the huge clouds of glowing gases and dusty details within this fascinating region.
M42 is an emission/reflection nebula and this huge cloud of glowing gas and dust is a great stellar nursery where new stars are being born. The pink/red glowing colour is due to the excitation of hydrogen gas and the chief visible emission line appears red to our eyes.
The Running Man Nebula above in contrast shines by reflection. It is visible to our eyes because of illumination from within by embedded stars.
Extensive dust clouds can be seen throughout the image being illuminated to varying degrees.
Imaged with a Skywatcher Esprit 120ED with focal reducer and a ZWO 2600MC camera at gain 100 and cooled to -10C.
115 (60s) and 10 (10s) guided exposures.
Temp. matched Darks
Flats & Dark Flats
Completed using Astro Pixel Processor, Photoshop 2022 and Starnet.
Nebulae of The Sword of Orion Complex (Starless)
This is a starless image of the Great Orion Nebula (M42) with the reflection nebula Sharpless Sh2-279 the "Running Man Nebula" situated above.
The "little" coma-shaped nebula above and separated from M42 by a dark dust lane is M43 or De Mairan's Nebula.
All form part of the sword region in the magnificent constellation of Orion.
I used Starnet to remove the attendant stars in the image and then concentrated on the nebulae in order to highlight the huge clouds of glowing gases and dusty details within this fascinating region.
M42 is an emission/reflection nebula and this huge cloud of glowing gas and dust is a great stellar nursery where new stars are being born. The pink/red glowing colour is due to the excitation of hydrogen gas and the chief visible emission line appears red to our eyes.
The Running Man Nebula above in contrast shines by reflection. It is visible to our eyes because of illumination from within by embedded stars.
Extensive dust clouds can be seen throughout the image being illuminated to varying degrees.
Imaged with a Skywatcher Esprit 120ED with focal reducer and a ZWO 2600MC camera at gain 100 and cooled to -10C.
115 (60s) and 10 (10s) guided exposures.
Temp. matched Darks
Flats & Dark Flats
Completed using Astro Pixel Processor, Photoshop 2022 and Starnet.