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The Orion Nebula is an easy target for me and my limited equipment and skill set.
The objective here was to try and show some of the faint dust and nebulosity that surrounds this star forming region. Also I attempted not to have the central region of the main nebula overly blown out.
I used four different exposures in this composite.
25 X 90 sec at ISO 1600
25 X 100 sec at ISO 2000 for the faint dust
12 X 60 sec at ISO 640
10 X 60 sec at ISO 320 for the innermost core of the nebula
To really show the faint dust I need longer exposures still, maybe around 2.5 or 3 minutes. But the star tracker has its limitations and it is very difficult for me to get clean, round stars beyond 100 sec. with my 200mm Takumar. 200mm x 1.6 crop factor makes a 320 mm lens and in my opinion that pushes the star tracker to its limits.
Canon 70D with Takumar 200mm f 4 manual lens stopped down to 5.6 in front of lens with stepdown rings.
IOptron startracker pro with counterweight.
Rigel systems star finder.
EOS utility for bulb timer and Canon DPP for quality checking on the fly.
All processing in Photoshop CS5 and some in Lightroom.
Stack of 25 shots at 200mm focal length and F5.6
10 x 120s RGB @ 1000ISO
15 x 180s with IR645 filter @ 4000ISO.
D810A + Sigma 120-300mm F2.8 + NEQ6
Shooting conditions were dry and dusty on the ground, very clear dark skies, a bit of wind and mild to no seeing.
This time I have done the preprocessing and editing with PixInsight 1.8, using one of many great tutorials out there. Final editing done with DxO OpticsPro 11, I might have "pushed" a bit too much and brought the noise and some dark issues out ...
If I have the patience tomorrow, I'll repeat the operation with a mosaic I shot of Orion a few nights after this photo. The conditions were not as good and Orion was getting close to Christchurch's light halo, so yeah ... annoying editing ahead ... it might take a while before you see said mosaic ... ;-)
My tribute to "The Hubble Space Telescope", one of the most successful scientific endeavors that completely changed our view of the known Universe and our place within it.
Best viewed LARGE!
The image is not at full resolution, but is still best viewed as LARGE as possible. Zoom in and out by clicking on the image (in the gap under the Astrometry identification notes) and pan around. You can also view the image in lightbox mode by clicking HERE.
Original Resolution: 18 000px.
Current Resolution: 8 000px.
About M42, the Great Nebula in Orion:
M42 (NGC 1976) is a diffuse nebula situated in the Milky Way Galaxy, in the constellation of Orion. It is one of the brightest nebulae, and is visible to the naked eye in the night sky. M42 is located at a distance of 1,344 light-years from Earth, and is the closest region of massive star formation.
Why I like to "play around" with scientific data:
This Feynman quote sums it up...
"Feynman, that's pretty interesting, but what's the importance of it? Why are you doing it?'' ``Hah!'' I say. ``There's no importance whatsoever. I'm just doing it for the fun of it.'' - "Surely you're joking, Mr. Feynman'', by Richard P Feynman.
Data source:
The Hubble Legacy Archive (HLA).
The Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI).
Processing:
Narrowband Monochrome FITS data in the HST Palette.
Processing and Linear workflow in PixInsight,
and finished in Photoshop.
Image processing by Martin Heigan.
Hubble Palette explanation:
www.astronomymark.com/hubble_palette.htm
Narrowband explanation:
www.swagastro.com/narrowband-information.html
My brief description of the Electromagnetic Spectrum of Light:
www.flickr.com/photos/martin_heigan/22278042895
Hubble Legacy Archive Credit:
Based on observations made with the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, and obtained from the Hubble Legacy Archive, which is a collaboration between the Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI/NASA), the Space Telescope European Coordinating Facility (ST-ECF/ESA) and the Canadian Astronomy Data Centre (CADC/NRC/CSA).
Flickr Explore:
Martin Heigan
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[Home Page] [Photography Showcase] [My Free Photo App]
[Flickr Profile] [Facebook] [Twitter] [My Science & Physics Page]
Diffuse Nebula in Orion. 1344 light years.
Equipment: 80mm Refractor on AVX mount with Canon 500D.
My first "serious" Astrophoto.
My latest attempt to take a picture of the Orion Nebula. The weather forecast for last night looked promising, so I drove to Lake Sonoma and set up the camera and the tracking mount. The night turned out to be windier than expected, and only about half of my exposures ended up being usable. The rest looked fine, though, and stacking them produced a passable photo.
La nébuleuse d’Orion - Messier 42 ✨
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C’est une des plus célèbres nébuleuses et une des plus brillantes nébuleuses à émission observable depuis la Terre !
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Elle est éloignée de 1500 années-lumière de la Terre, ce qui est énorme sachant que la distance Terre-Soleil est de 8 minutes-lumières… Elle est malgré tout la nébuleuse la plus intense et visible depuis l’hémisphère nord. Elle est même visible à l’œil nu!
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La nébuleuse d’Orion correspond à la partie la plus brillante d’un vaste nuage de gaz et de poussière. Cette nébuleuse est dite « pouponnière », des milliers d’étoiles y sont en train de naître!
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- Skywatcher 200/1000
- NEQ6 pro goto
- EOS 6D Astrodon (3h30 de pose)
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Merci d’avance, n’hésitez pas 😁
M42 Orion Nebula
This images was taken on iTelescope T8, a Takahashi FSQ 106mm scope coupled to a FLI microline camera. It is comprised of Luminescence, Red, Green and Blue exposures, each of 5 minutes. The FITS files were first processed in ESA’s Fits Liberator before processing in Photoshop CC.
The Orion Nebula is a diffuse nebula situated in the Milky Way, being south of Orion’s Belt in the constellation of Orion. It is one of the brightest nebulae, and is visible to the naked eye in the night sky. M42 is located at a distance of 1,344 ± 20 light years and is the closest region of massive star formation to Earth. The M42 nebula is estimated to be 24 light years across. It has a mass of about 2000 times the mass of the Sun. Older texts frequently refer to the Orion Nebula as the Great Nebula in Orion or the Great Orion Nebula.
M42 The Orion Nebula imaged in HaOiiiOiii. The Ha image is mapped to red and consists of 6 hours of 60 second subframes. The Oii image is mapped to green and blue and consists of 4 hours worth of 60 second subframes.
Ha data was captured during December 2019 and January 2020.
Ts65 Quad Astrograph & ASI1600MM Pro camera
Dust & Nebulas in Orions Belt
Canon EOS 1000Da, Canon EF 200 mm f/2.8L, f/4, ISO-800, 44 x 2.5 Min on Astrotrac
komplette Neubearbeitung mit Daten aus dem Februar 2018 mit Astro Pixel Processor und Photoshop CC 2018
Captured with Nikon D810A set to 400ISO and Nikon 600mm F4 fully open, on ZWO AM5 mount. + autoguiding.
Stack of 38x 15" subs used as "luminance" to boost details on 40x 45" subs processed as LRGB.
Orion Nebula
Telescope Planewave CDK24 RGB-L + Ha-OIII data set (remote session)
Processed with RegiStar, Luminar 4
Used a stock camera(Nikon D5600) with a very close spectral response similar to the human eye. Hydrogen emission nebulae actually appear pink due to H-alpha (red), H-beta (blue) and emission from other atoms, like oxygen and sulfur. Orange faint nebulosity is the dust clouds.
Data acquisition
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Camera : Nikon D5600
Lens : 70-300mm kit lens (300mm @f6.3)
Mount : iOptron Skyguider Pro
Tripod : Manfrotto MT190
Total exposure : 1 Hour 26 mins
172 framses stacked,cropped and processed.
Light frames : 30"x 172
no dark,flat,bias frames
Bortle scale : class 4
Image processing
------------------------
Stacked using Deep Sky Stacker
Image processed using Siril , ImagesPlus and PS
La nébuleuse d’Orion - Messier 42 ✨
•
C’est une des plus célèbres nébuleuses et une des plus brillantes nébuleuses à émission observable depuis la Terre !
.
Elle est éloignée de 1500 années-lumière de la Terre, ce qui est énorme sachant que la distance Terre-Soleil est de 8 minutes-lumières… Elle est malgré tout la nébuleuse la plus intense et visible depuis l’hémisphère nord. Elle est même visible à l’œil nu!
.
La nébuleuse d’Orion correspond à la partie la plus brillante d’un vaste nuage de gaz et de poussière. Cette nébuleuse est dite « pouponnière », des milliers d’étoiles y sont en train de naître!
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Elle n’est qu’une infime partie de notre galaxie, la Voie-Lactée, qui elle possède un diamètre de 100 000 années-lumière.. Nous sommes vraiment minuscules dans cet univers…
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- Skywatcher 200/1000
- NEQ6 pro goto
- EOS 6D Astrodon (2h de pose)
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Merci d’avance, n’hésitez pas 😁
Que maravilla ver como me sonríe el cielo nocturno en un lugar como este!!!😍
Primera salida nocturna del 2023 y primeros resultados aplicando nuevas técnicas de disparo y procesado.
👀 Además aprovechando la visita a nuevas localizaciones para poder ofrecer talleres donde poder mostrar todos estos nuevos métodos.
👉 Si quieres acompañarme en una de estas salidas nocturnas, he preparado 3 talleres en 3 localizaciones diferentes donde poder disfrutar del cielo nocturno de forma espectacular.
Las fechas son el 25 de febrero, 25 de marzo y 22 de abril en las que además de poder fotografiar vía láctea también haremos circumpolares y rastros de estrellas, junto a una masterclass de revelado y procesado.
Pásate por el siguiente enlace para obtener más información o ponte en contacto por privado para que te pueda resolver las dudas.
Por cierto, la cámara no está astromodificada 😜
More info in: Magical Universe. Visit: Flickr Astronomy Expo
Infrared view of the Orion Nebula
This spectacular image of the Orion Nebula star-formation region was obtained from multiple exposures using the HAWK-I infrared camera on ESO’s Very Large Telescope in Chile. This is the deepest view ever of this region and reveals more very faint planetary-mass objects than expected.
Credit: ESO / H. Drass
Join the Flickr Group Astro Imaging
En la imagen podemos ver la Gran Nebulosa de Orion junto a la nebulosa del Hombre corriendo, que se encuentran en la constelación de Orion.
Tomada con una cámara de fotos sin astromodificar, podemos ver en ambas nebulosas colores que van desde tonos de rojo y rosa hasta azul y verde, y están compuestas por gases y polvo interestelar que se iluminan por la energía emitida por las estrellas cercanas.
Si te gusta este tipo de fotografía, te recuerdo que el próximo 25 de marzo vamos a estar en el desierto de Monegros realizando fotografía nocturna donde podrás conocer como se realiza este tipo de fotografías y otras como las que puedes ver en mi perfil.
Puedes encontrar mucha más información y reservar tu plaza en:
Una de las regiones que más llaman mi atención en el cielo de invierno es el Bucle de Barnard, y me moría por poder fotografiarlo. Sabía que era complicado sin tener una cámara astro-modificada, pero si somos constantes y conseguimos realizar las fotos correctas, también podemos obtener algunos resultados.
Esta es mi primera aportación pero espero seguir mejorando la técnica y ofreceros más en un futuro próximo. ¿Qué os parece? ¿También eras de los que pensaba que no se podía conseguir si un equipo especifico? Te leo en los cometarios...😜
and the Running Man Nebula
The last clear nights I've tried a bit in the astrophotography here in my garden in the South Eifel / Germany. I have often photographed the Orion Nebula in the past and have always been very happy that this is possible with my camera. But to get a better result, I do not do as I did then only one shot, today I make as many as possible to combine them in a single picture.
I have tracked with the Vixen Polarie (Star Tracker), reworked with Deep Sky Stacker and Lightroom.
Details:
OMD E-M5 and 40-150mm F2.8 + MC-14, mounted on Vixen Polarie
389 Lightframes each 15sec....f4...ISO 3200...210mm
and a few Darks and Bias.
(With the correct implementation of the colors of the mist I have struggled hard)
My annual attempt of this very well known object.
Aberkenfig, South Wales
Lat +51.542 Long -3.593
Skywatcher 254mm Newtonian Reflector, Olympus E410 at prime focus. EQ6 Syntrek Mount.
Out of 39 frames captured, 37 were used in the processing.
12 x 50s @ ISO 800
12 x 40s @ ISO 1600
13 x 30s @ ISO 800
Also 10 dark frames.
Processed with Deep Sky Stacker.
Final levels adjusted using shadows & highlight correction with G.I.M.P. to reduce the exposure at the centre of the nebula.
Orion a.k.a. Messier 42, the most famous nebula in the night sky in both the northern and southern hemispheres, can be found in the constellation Orion and can be seen (literally) from August to April. Orion can be seen with the naked eye from low light pollution locations, but a simple pair of binoculars is more than enough to be observed in the middle of Orion's Sword.
M42 is about 1300 light-years away from Earth, has an apparent diameter of 12 light-years, and is considered by far one of the most popular targets in astrophotography, along with Andromeda Galaxy.
I took this picture from a Bortle 2-3 location, using "advanced amateur" equipment and is without any doubts my best Orion image so far.
Equipment and settings:
Mount: SW EQ6R
Telescope: SW 72ED
Camera: ASI 533 MC Pro.
Total exposure: 102 min
Stacked with Deep Sky Stacker. Edit in Pixinsight.
Location: Bortle 2/3
I have imaged Orion's Sword with Messier 42 the Orion Nebula with the same telescope and camera set up every year for the past four years. This image is the result of pulling together all of my data from 2018, 2019 and 2020. I didn't include 2017's data because it was shot through thin cloud and the images weren't the best quality.
Equipment:
William Optics 70mm refractor, Canon 1100D with CLS light pollution clip filter fitted on an EQ5 Pro mount which was mounted on a permanent pier. The mount was tracking but no guiding was used.
7th December 2018:
Outer : 52 x 90 seconds at ISO-800 + 30 darks
Core region: 13 x 10 seconds at ISO-800 + 25 darks
1st December 2019:
Outer: 29 x 120 seconds at ISO-1600 + 25 darks
Core: 29 x 15 seconds at ISO-1600 + 30 darks
22nd November 2020:
Outer region: 37 x 90 seconds at ISO-1600 + 25 darks
Core region: 40 x 30 seconds at ISO-1600 + 15 darks
All of the frames were analysed in Deep Sky Stacker and only the best frames were included in the stack.
The outer region was a total of 103 lights + 70 darks with a total exposure time of 2 hours 47 minutes
The core region was a total of 134 lights + 45 darks, with a total exposure time of 42minutes 30 seconds
After stacking the two images were processed separately in Photoshop CS2 with the RC Astrotools, AstroFlat Pro and Hasta la Vista Green plugins in addition to manual levels and curves adjustments. The core region was processed twice to preserve detail around the trapezium and then the final three images were blended together using a layer mask in Photoshop. The blended image was then processed further in Lightroom and Fast Stone Image Viewer.
There is definitely more detail in the outer nebula regions now that I've added all of this data together. I never get bored of this object!
The Orion Nebula in HA RGB,
Situated in the milkyway in the constellation of Orion the Nebula is estimated to be a massive 24 light years across.
Equipment used;
Celestron cgx mount
Lacerta 200/800 photo Newtonian
QHY9m camera cooled -25
Baader ha rgb filters
365 astronomy delux 60mm guidescope
ZWOasi224mc guide camera phd2 guiding
18 x 300 seconds HA
14 x 300 red
14 x 300 green
14 x 300 blue
Captured using sequence generator pro, stacked in deep sky stacked and finished in photoshop.
Refractor Takahashi FC76DCU.
Integration only 1h30 ! (92*60")
Mount HEQ5 - Refractor Takahashi FC76DCU - ZWO ASI 2600 MC pro - Guidage Diviseur Optique + AZI 290 mini.
Filtre L-Pro
DOF : 10/10/10
Process RVB with SIRIL, LR & PS
Oriontåken - Great Nebula of Orion.
Exif: 58x60sec exp, nikon d810a, 300mm, f/7.1, iso: 3200, mount: astrotrac. #oriontåken
#nebula
#nebula of orion
#M42
#Messier42
#stjernetåke
#deepspace
#dslr
#Astrophotography
#Astrotrac
#Deep sky
#NGC 1976
#norway
#troms
#nikon d810a #nightsky #universe #kosmos #nikonskies #mynikonmoment
M42 The Orion Nebula in H-alpha
My lunar eclipse photo session was not so successful this morning. I much prefer the outcome of this one... Still quite a bit of Moon this evening, so only H-alpha was possible tonight.
These are 2h worth of data. 30x240s at ISO800. 12 darks. Added some 30x30s lights for the dark centre. All taken with my Explore Scientific ED 127 on an iOptron iEQ45pro mount. Camera was my 700Da.
#astrofotografia #astro #astrobin #astrofotografie #astrophotography #astrogeek #dso #deepskyphotograpy #deepskystacker #explorescientific #ioptronieq45 #ioptron #orion #orionnebula #m42 #messier #messier42 #orionnebel #sterne #stars #canon #nightphotography #nightsky #pfaffenhofen #canon #eos700da #astrogeek #nebula #nebel #space #universe
Anyone who knows the night sky knows about the biggest, brightest nebula visible from the northern hemisphere - the Great Orion Nebula. Afterall, it's one of the very few nebulae that are so big & bright, you can spot it with the naked eye. It's also part of the Orion Constellation that dominates the winter sky - especially easy to spot with the 3 star Belt of Orion. By the way, scientists believe the Orion Nebula is a stellar nursery with a big nebulous cocoon that's giving birth to as many as a thousand stars.
With the Orion Nebula (appearing in the bottom) and the Running Man Nebula (top), this area has some wonderful color that comes from huge clouds of dust and gas. What I wasn't expecting was the green color appearing on the edge of the Orion Nebula (showing up naturally in the one shot color images).
I captured this image (from my home in Colorado) using iTelescope.net's T2 telescope based in Mayhill, New Mexico. I captured 38 images over 4 nights (in a 3x1 mosaic) and processed them with Astro Pixel Processor, Photoshop and Topaz Denoise.
Exposure Settings
• 3x1 mosaic (14 images left, 12 center, 12 right)
• 38 images (all full color)
• Exposure Time: 5 minutes (each image)
• Total Exposure Time: 3 hours, 10 minutes
Telescope Optics & Camera
• Optics: Takahashi TOA-150 (T2, Refractor)
• Focal Length: 1,105 mm
• CCD: QHY268C "One Shot Color" - 26 mp
Ive seen some lovely images of Orion taken with a hydrogen alpha 656.4nm filter on a wide angle camera. Im still very much learning how to do this but this was taken as follows:
Modified Canon 60D with Astronomik clip-in 12nm Hydrogen alpha filter. Sigma 50mm f/1.4 Arts at f/1.6.
52 x 2 minute subs @ ISO400
AstroTrac tt320x AG Mount with PoleMaster polar alignment
BackyardEOS for focusing and acquisition control.
PixInsight and Photoshop CC processing.
100 x dark frames
150 x bias frames
Camera sensor temperature 12-16c.
La constellation d'Orion est l'une des plus belles constellations du ciel. On la reconnaît facilement aux trois étoiles alignées qui représentent sa ceinture. Il s'agit d'Alnitak, Alnilam et Mintaka (visbile au centre de l'image). L'étoile du bas est entourée de la nébuleuse de la Tête de Cheval.
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Sur la droite, il s'agit de la nébuleuse d’Orion, très célèbre, et aussi désignée sous le nom Messier 42 (M 42). Ce nuage de gaz et de poussière est gigantesque : il s'étend sur environ 24 années-lumière à 1.400 années-lumière de nous. Des milliers d'étoiles y sont en train de naître.
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plus au dessus encore, dans la constellation de l'Éridan, on peut voir la nébuleuse de la tête de Sorcière (ngc 1909) à proximité de Rigel (une étoile très brillante qui l'éclaire).
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le tout est entouré par la gigantesque nébuleuse, la Boucle de Barnard (demi arc de cercle rouge).
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Neq6 pro goto - Samyang 135mm - panorama de 2photos. 2h par tuiles (pose unitaire : 1'20) - Canon 6d astrodon. - traitement Ps et Siril.
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Merci d'avance
Aberkenfig, South Wales
Lat +51.542 Long -3.593
Skywatcher 254mm Newtonian Reflector, Olympus E410 at prime focus. EQ6 Syntrek Mount.
Out of 28 frames captured (50s at ISO 800), 23 were used in the processing. Also 10 dark frames.
Processed with Deep Sky Stacker and final levels adjusted with G.I.M.P.
A night of very good transparency enabled higher exposure times on this attempt. Having the target to the west of the meridian also helped. This is where the light pollution is a little less intrusive at my location. A fairly reasonable outcome.
Trying out my Ioptron Sky Tracker Pro. Shot with Canon 70D and manual Leica 135mm lens at f4. Also learning some processing techniques.
13x30 sec
10x15 sec
Manually stacked in Photoshop CS4
Cropped 55%
Processed as LRGB
2x1 Mosaic. Each panel 11x5 min R/G/B.
APM LZOS 130/780 with Riccardi Reducer and ATIK ONE 9.0 with Baader RGB filter
Re-procesada
Telescopio: ED80 Sky Watcher
Montura: LXD75 Meade
Cámara: Canon 1100Da
Guiado: MiniScope 50mm Orion, CámaraGuia/QHY5 L-II c
Adquisición: APT (AstroPhotographyTool)
Apilado y procesado: DeepSkyStacker, PixInsight LE, Photoshop y Lightroom
Tomas
RGB: 10x15s / 10x30s / 10x300s / 12x600s / 6x900s
Expo Total: 4h 28 min
Temperatura sensor: 7°C /15ºC
Distancia Focal: 600mm
F/ 7,5
celfoscastrofotografia.blogspot.com.es/2017/12/despidiend...
Total exposure was 2 hours 32 minutes at ISO 800 (61 subframes of 150 seconds were stacked). I used Canon 1000D without IR-filter and telescope-refractor Sky-Watcher ED-80 (F=510mm, D=80mm, f/6.4).
OK, this is just a test of Orion Nebula taken with Pentax 105 APO refractor (670 mm focal length), Nikon F80 camera and Portra 160 negative film. Exposed for 45 minutes under dark skies. Gradient corrected with GraXpert and just some quick color and contrast corrections.
NASA / ESA / CSA / J. Schmidt
Data from Proposal 5804, PI Tom Megeath
Infrared view from JWST situated just north of the bright Orion Nebula, but under M43. Instead of viewing the visibly bright part of the Orion molecular cloud complex, this is looking into a rather dusty cloud with lots of jets propelled by forming protostars visible. Darker areas are clouds of dense dust thick enough that even NIRCam didn't detect any emission from them. It is possible to see a lot of background galaxies, so we're probably seeing much of what there is to see. No doubt MIRI could see some of the jets that are occluded by the dust, though.
Processing notes: I have big issues with the mosaics output by the JWST pipeline, as usual. I opted not to manually mosaic it because it's just too time-consuming. At least this time most of the problems are on the left third of the image. Some minor misalignment during the automated mosaicing process caused weird patches around some of the bright sources to erroneously be removed as if they were transient events like cosmic rays. Also, when you see the filter "F444W-470N" I do believe that means both filters are overlapped, and therefore only what makes it through the narrower filter hits the detector. So "Red" here is really just a narrowband filter. Easy to get confused.
Pale Yellow (Almost white): NIRCam/F360M
Red: NIRCam/F444W-F470N
Orange: NIRCam/F480M
Cyan: NIRCam/F210M
North is about 77° clockwise from up.
This is a 2-hour image of the Orion Nebula was processed using no filters, the main image was also clipped and processed to show the Trapezium Cluster inside the nebula.
The Orion Nebula (also known as Messier 42, M42, or NGC 1976) is a diffuse nebula situated in the Milky Way, being south of Orion's Belt in the constellation of Orion. It is one of the brightest nebulae and is visible to the naked eye in the night sky with apparent magnitude 4.0. It is about 1,344 light-years away and is the closest region of massive star formation to Earth. The M42 nebula is estimated to be 24 light-years across (so its apparent size from Earth is approximately 1 degree). It has a mass of about 2,000 times that of the Sun. (ref. Wikipedia)
Observation data: J2000 epoch
Subtype: Reflection/Emission
Right ascension: 05h 35m 17.3s
Declination: −05° 23′ 28″
Distance: 1,344±20 ly
Apparent magnitude (V): 4.0
Apparent dimensions (V): 65×60 arcmins
Constellation: Orion
Tech Specs: Orion 8” RC Telescope, ZWO ASI2600MC camera running at -10F, 124 Minutes using 60 second exposures, Celestron CGEM-DX pier mounted, ZWO EAF and ASIAir Pro, processed in PixInsight. Image Date: November 3, 2024. Location: The Dark Side Observatory (W59), Weatherly, PA, USA (Bortle Class 4).
The first image of 2023, and because Orion is already setting relatively early, it made sense to revisit M42, The Orion Nebula. This shot is a composite image made from three different exposures and stacked separately. The lower exposure images were then blended with the higher exposure image to reduce the overexposed regions to just The Trapezium Cluster (the asterism of six very bright, young stars in the central region).
[Summarised From Wikipedia] The Orion Nebula (also known as Messier 42, M42, or NGC 1976) is a diffuse nebula situated approximately 1,344 light-years away in the constellation of Orion. It is one of the brightest nebulae and is visible to the naked eye in the night sky. M42 is the closest region of massive star formation to Earth and is estimated to be 24 light-years across.
The Orion Nebula is visible with the naked eye and is seen as the middle "star" in the "sword" of Orion, which are the three stars located south of Orion's Belt. The "star" appears fuzzy to sharp-eyed observers, and the nebulosity is obvious through binoculars or a small telescope.
Just as The Trapezium Cluster is a component of the much larger Orion Nebula, so the Orion Nebula is in turn surrounded by the much larger Orion molecular cloud complex which is hundreds of light years across, spanning the whole Orion Constellation.
17/01/2023
017 x 300-second exposures at Unity Gain (139) cooled to -10°C
008 x 120-second exposures at Unity Gain (139) cooled to -10°C
023 x 030-second exposures at Unity Gain (139) cooled to -10°C
095 x dark frames
050 x flat frames
100 x bias frames
Binning 1x1
Total integration time = 1 hour, 52 minutes and 30 seconds
Captured with APT
Guided with PHD2
Processed in Nebulosity and Photoshop
Equipment:
Telescope: Sky-Watcher Explorer-150PDS
Mount: Skywatcher EQ5
Guide Scope: Orion 50mm Mini
Guiding Camera: Zwo ASI 120 MC and SVBONY SV105 with ZWO USBST4 guider adapter
Imaging Camera: Zwo ASI 1600MC Pro with anti-dew heater
Baader Mark-III MPCC Coma Corrector
Filter: Optolong L-Pro
Telescope: TS CF-APO 90mm f/6 + 0.8x reductor
Mount: Astrotrac 360
Cam: ZWO ASI 2600MM + EFW 7x2" + Astronomik filter set
L: 131*120s + 247*3s = 4h34min
R:60*60s= 1h
G: 60*60s= 1h
B: 60*60s= 1h
Ha: 48 *300s = 4h
Total: 11h34min
M42 imaged from my front garden here in Suffolk. ~8hrs of exposure with my Nikon D7000 DSLR.
More image details/higher res on my website: www.eprisephoto.com/nebula/h42F1922
Shortlisted for Deep Sky category, Astrophotographer of the Year 2014 competition by the Royal Observatory, Greenwich
An updated version of The Orion Nebula (M42) and Running Man Nebula (Sh2-279) with more data added to the original five 180 second frames – some 300 second shots to bring out the Running Man Nebula and some 30 second shots to counter the over exposure of the bright core of the Orion Nebula. That should have been enough to bring out plenty of detail in the two objects, however both nights of imaging were plagued with rubbish weather conditions. The first night had intermittent cloud which meant long pauses in shooting and the target eventually setting. We were able to get more data on the the second night but conditions were even worse with poor visibility, a full Moon, and dreadful seeing which caused misshapen stars in the subs. Because there is no sign of of an improvement in the weather at the time of writing, it was worth processing the data anyway in case Orion’s season ends before another chance to image it presents itself. The three sets of exposures were processed seperately and composited in Photoshop with some noise reduction used in Lightroom. Apart from some slightly misshapen stars caused by the turbulent sky, the end result is more detailed than the image from the original session.
Further Information:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orion_Nebula
005 x 180 second exposures at Unity Gain (139) cooled to -20°C
009 x 300 second exposures at Unity Gain (139) cooled to -20°C
027 x 030 second exposures at Unity Gain (139) cooled to -20°C
154 x dark frames
060 x flat frames
100 x bias frames
Binning 1x1
Total integration time = 1 hour 13 minutes and 30 seconds
Captured with APT
Guided with PHD2
Processed in Nebulosity, Fitsworks, Lightroom and Photoshop
Equipment:
Telescope: Sky-Watcher Explorer-150PDS
Mount: Skywatcher EQ5
Guide Scope: Orion 50mm Mini
Guiding Camera: ZWO ASI120MC
Imaging Camera: ZWO ASI1600MC Pro
Baader Mark-III MPCC Coma Corrector
Light pollution filter
First light of 2020 was quite splendid from the new location of the Loowit Imaging Observatory. The new location has a much wider view of the southern sky and afforded me the much-desired opportunity to capture longer data on Orion's Sword last night.
When I showed my girlfriend this very target in the eyepiece with the 10" LX200, she was quite surprised at the eyepiece difference vs. what you saw on the camera. Space is quite amazing!