M42 The Great Orion Nebula - A Final Take
This is a bit of an imaging swansong for this season of the beautiful Great Nebula in Orion's Sword, which was designated M42 by Charles Messier in his famous catalogue.
It is an emission nebula and stellar nursery.
This image is a combination of data captured in January this year with my Askar 71mm refractor and data acquired back in January 2022 with my Skywatcher Esprit 120ED.
The image includes the "Running Man Nebula", above the main nebula and catalogued as Sharpless Sh2-279. It is so-called because of its resemblance to a fleeing human running with flailing arms outstretched! Sh2-279 actually contains 3 NGC nebula: NGC 1973, NGC 1975 & NGC 1977 divided by darker nebulous regions. It also contains an open cluster NGC 1981.
Also included is M43, De Marian's Nebula, visible as a comma-like feature projecting at the top the main nebula and associated with dense dust and gas features.
M42 is one of the brightest nebulas in our sky, lying at a distance of 1,300 light years. This massive cloud of glowing gas and dust is a stellar nursery and is the closest massive star forming region to earth.
In contrast to M42 which is an emission nebula the Running Man is a reflection nebula. It is only visible to us because light from an illumination source, such as embedded stars, lights up the surrounding gas and dust..
Notable is the extensive amount of dust clouds evident throughout the image.
Imaged with an Askar 71f refractor and a ZWO 2600MC camera fitted with an IDAS LP filter during the night of 15 January. This data was combined with exposures obtained with my Esprit 120ED and a ZWO 2600MC on the 11 January 2022.
A total of 4hrs of exposure over the two sessions, calibrated with temp. matched darks, flats and dark flats.
Thanks for looking!
M42 The Great Orion Nebula - A Final Take
This is a bit of an imaging swansong for this season of the beautiful Great Nebula in Orion's Sword, which was designated M42 by Charles Messier in his famous catalogue.
It is an emission nebula and stellar nursery.
This image is a combination of data captured in January this year with my Askar 71mm refractor and data acquired back in January 2022 with my Skywatcher Esprit 120ED.
The image includes the "Running Man Nebula", above the main nebula and catalogued as Sharpless Sh2-279. It is so-called because of its resemblance to a fleeing human running with flailing arms outstretched! Sh2-279 actually contains 3 NGC nebula: NGC 1973, NGC 1975 & NGC 1977 divided by darker nebulous regions. It also contains an open cluster NGC 1981.
Also included is M43, De Marian's Nebula, visible as a comma-like feature projecting at the top the main nebula and associated with dense dust and gas features.
M42 is one of the brightest nebulas in our sky, lying at a distance of 1,300 light years. This massive cloud of glowing gas and dust is a stellar nursery and is the closest massive star forming region to earth.
In contrast to M42 which is an emission nebula the Running Man is a reflection nebula. It is only visible to us because light from an illumination source, such as embedded stars, lights up the surrounding gas and dust..
Notable is the extensive amount of dust clouds evident throughout the image.
Imaged with an Askar 71f refractor and a ZWO 2600MC camera fitted with an IDAS LP filter during the night of 15 January. This data was combined with exposures obtained with my Esprit 120ED and a ZWO 2600MC on the 11 January 2022.
A total of 4hrs of exposure over the two sessions, calibrated with temp. matched darks, flats and dark flats.
Thanks for looking!