Orion's Sword

Just South of Orion’s Belt

This image was captured from my back garden in light polluted Nottingham, thankfully the Astronomik CLS clip-filter has done a good job at keeping the light pollution within manageable levels.

The raw images were stacked in Deep Sky Stacker and then processed in Photoshop using a layer mask to blend the two sets of exposures.

Canon 60Da

SW Evostar 80ED at 510mm f/6.3

SW .85x focal reducer corrector

EQ6 Pro (EQASCOM)

Astronomik EOS CLS Clip Filter

All frames at ISO 1600

40 x 180 seconds & 40 x 30 seconds

Total integration time: 120 minutes

Lacerta Off-Axis Guider (OAGhu48)

Lodestar Autoguider and PHD Guiding

Stacked in Deep Sky Stacker, processed in Photoshop.

Lights: 40x 180s & 40x 30s

60x flats

60x dark flats

60x bias frames

60x darks

Objects visible in the image:

M42 (NGC 1976), M43 (NGC 1982), NGC 1973, NGC 1975, NGC 1977, NGC 1980, NGC 1981

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

The Orion and Running Man nebulae LRSynGB

5x120 seconds BIN 1 Lum

1x120 seconds BIN 1 R & B, Synthetic green as clouded over before I obtained the green channel!

Open cluster NGC 1981 at the top then down to the Running Man reflection/emission nebula then finally M42 and M43 below.

Its actually been 2 years since I last tackled this subject with my 480mm f/6 scope.

The 2021 plan was to acquire about an hour of 1 minute subs at ISO800.

Previous effort in March 2019 here:

www.flickr.com/photos/16271433@N02/47180403212/in/album-7...

Before that in March 2015 here:

www.flickr.com/photos/16271433@N02/16373842900/in/album-7...

480/80mm f/6 Altair Starwave triplet refractor.

Altair Planostar 1.0 x FF with 2 inch IDAS LPS D1 filter

Astro-modified Canon 80D at ISO800; 62 x 1 minute subs

NEQ6 pro mount with Rowan belt drives -2 star align.

Camera control with Backyard EOS

Camera sensor temperature (external battery): 5-6c

50 dark frames from dark library (temperature selected)

50 flat frames (electroluminescent panel @ 1/80s)

50 bias frames

Post processed in PixInsight 1.8.8 and Photoshop CC 2021.

Local parameters:

Temp: -1` - 0c

Humidity: 50%

Pressure: 1017 hPa

Light Pollution and Weather:

SQM (L) at end of session (2355 hrs UT) =20.00 mag/arcsec2.

Clear, all subs good.

Polar Alignment:

QHY Polemaster alignment -

Error measured by PHD2= 1.3 arc minute.

RA drift + 1.82 arcsec/min

Dec drift + 0.35 arcsec/min

Guiding:

PHD2 guiding with ZWO ASI290mm/Altair Starwave 206/50mm guider. Partially Dithered.

RA RMS error 0.98 arcsec, peak error -3.59 arcsec

Dec RMS error 0.81 arcsec, peak error 2.6 arcsec

Astrometry:

Center (RA): 05h 35m 38.243s

Center (Dec): -05° 15' 13.000"

Size: 1d 16m 51.7s x 1d 46m 14.7s

Image scale: 1.59 arcsec/pixel

Focal distance: 478.76mm

Pixel Size 3.7 microm

Added the right panel to this mosaic, 2 hours of 600sec subs is good enough by my standards. There is actually quite a bit of work I have to do with the central pane, I did the pixel rejection as a last step in integrating the light frames instead of both at the darks integration and lights integration, which yields far better results than the former. Still working on it...

7hr 10min total integration (so far)

Nikkor 135mm f/2.8 manual lens

STL11K

50mm Astrodon Ha (6nm)

CGEM-DX

PixInsight

This is a photo of the Orion Molecular Cloud Complex, which is a large group of bright nebulae, dark clouds, and young stars visible around the Orion constellation. Some of the most noticeable objects in this image include Barnard’s Loop, Orion Nebula, Running Man Nebula, Flame Nebula, Horsehead Nebula, Rosette Nebula, Witch Head Nebula, and the bright colorful stars Betelgeuse, Rigel, Bellatrix, and Saiph, to name a few.

This was shot with the Nikon Z 6 and the NIKKOR Z 58mm f/0.95 S Noct lens. I had to stop the lens down to f/2.8 to get sharp stars without chromatic aberrations. It’s ok by f/1.8, but f/2.8 was even better. I used an iOptron SkyGuider Pro star tracker with counterweight and William Optics alt-az base (better than the iOptron version that comes in the kit). With the star tracker I was able to take 5 minute exposures and get sharp pinpoint stars. I took 8 exposures at 5 minutes each for a total of 40 minutes of capture time. All shots were at f/2.8 and ISO 200.

The exposures were prepped in Lightroom and then stacked in Starry Sky Stacker for even lower noise. I used PixInsight and Photoshop for final processing to remove gradients, balance the background, and bring out the colors and nebulosity.

Visit my website to learn more about my photos and video tutorials: www.adamwoodworth.com

Située à environ 1500 années-lumière du système solaire dans la constellation d'Orion, NGC 1977 est une nébuleuse par réflexion (nébuleuses dont les nuages de poussières et de gaz réfléchissent la lumière d'une ou plusieurs étoiles voisines).

Passy, Haute-Savoie, France.

Téléscope 200/800 f4 sur AZEQ6 Pro,

Caméra Zwo Asi 294MM Pro,

35 Light et 15 X R, V, B de 120 sec.

Lionel Quaglia Photographies est aussi sur:

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The next night after successfully imaging the Rosette Nebula, I framed and centered on the Orion Nebula where the whole of "Orion's Sword" fit into the frame at the refractors 500mm focal length.

This exposure of the Orion Nebula region is really just a quick and lazy session since I didn't want to waste a clear night by doing nothing and the scope was already setup and focused so I wouldn't be spending much time on setup. I also didn't have a plan for imaging another object and M42 region is near the Rosette and in the same part of the sky so it seemed like a good idea being a bright and easy object to image.

This image consists of all RGB or OSC (through the IRCut filter) 31x15s, 32x30s, 16x60s, 10x90s, 11x120s ISO1600 subs taken using a full spectrum modded and cooled Canon 40D through 80mm F6.25 refractor.

My first M42 of the season! This is the whole of Orion's Sword with the Running Man Nebula at the top and the Orion Nebula in the middle.

Taken from Oxfordshire, UK with a William Optics 70mm refractor and Canon 1100D fitted with a SkyTech light pollution clip filter. The telescope was on an EQ5 Pro mount, tracking but not guided.

Outer region was ISO-1600 for 90 seconds. 30 lights + 26 darks - total exposure time 50 minutes.

Core region was ISO-1600 for 30 seconds, 39 lights and 16 darks, total exposure time 19.5 minutes

The images for the two regions were stacked separately using Deep Sky Stacker. Both were initially processed separately in Photoshop CS2, then blended together using a layer mask. The blended image was then processed further in Photoshop CS2, Lightroom and Fast Stone.

This was a quick process in Photoshop but I'm planning to combine this data with some that I shot last year to see how much more detail I can pull out of it.

2.5 minutes total integration! In a white zone! After removing Black Widow Spider from the mount!

This with the Sony A7Rii, tracking on Celestron AVX Advanced, calibration via StarSense. and using the Astrotech AT65 EDQ scope.

(source: Wikipedia)

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.[b] 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 1,344 ± 20 light-years (412.1 ± 6.1 pc) away[3][6] 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.

Running Man Nebula -- is an HII region and bright nebulae that includes a reflection nebula located in the constellation Orion. It is the northernmost part of the asterism known as Orion's Sword, lying 0.6° north of the Orion Nebula. The reflection nebula embedded in Sh2-279 is popularly known as the Running Man Nebula.

This is the result after stacking 83 images of the Orion Nebula, taken in bad light pollution near Palm Springs, California. I am really happy with the result! This image is way more detailed than the previous image I uploaded, which was one of the images stacked to form this image. It is also much more accurate way less noisy. You can even see the Running Man Nebula quite well above the Orion Nebula. Given this was taken in bad light pollution,I am excited to try stacking pictures from much less light polluted areas!

This was processed on my laptop screen so I will reprocess it when I'm home on my monitor.

Don't worry, I'm getting lots of bird pictures which I will upload when I'm home!

83 exposures stacked, each taken with a Canon 7D Mark II and Canon EF 400mm f/5.6L USM at 1 second, ISO 16000 and f/5.6.

I shot this area with this exact framing last December, but wanted to improve my image. This time my focus was better (I didn't have a Bahtinov mask then), I shot and processed raw (jpeg last time), and I used Astro Pixel Processor tools for processing.

The only thing that wasn't better this time around was my tracking - I only used 50% of my subs, many of which still had slightly trailed stars; I think my balance was off. I would have liked more integration time, but still got a result I'm happy with using only 35 minutes of data.

Fujifilm X-T10, Samyang 135mm f/2.0 ED UMC @ f2.0, ISO 1600, 35 x 60 sec, tracking with iOptron SkyTracker Pro, stacking with DeepSkyStacker, editing with Astro Pixel Processor and GIMP, taken on Oct. 6, 2019 under Bortle 3/4 skies.

Jan 7 2020 edit: A very slight re-edit - I monkeyed with the original stack a bit less this time - I like the Horsehead Nebula better in this version.

It's that time of year when the Orion the Hunter graces the Northern Hemisphere skies once again. Found in Orion's sword, the Orion Nebula is so bright you can see it with the naked eye or a good set of binoculars. For this edit, I used multiple ISO and exposure times to create and HDR image that keeps the detail in the core but also brings out the outer gases. I used an L-enhance duo-band filter to isolate the hydrogen and oxygen.

The Great Nebula in Orion (M42) and the Running Man Nebula (NGC 1977), photographed in Narrowband using the Hubble Palette (HST).

M42 is a diffuse nebula situated in the Milky Way, 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 light-years, and is the closest region of massive star formation to Earth.

Why image in Narrowband?

In short, different elements show up in different colors of the spectra in far more detail. See my link to ''A brief description of the Electromagnetic Spectrum of Light'' for more info.

Why go through all the trouble?

“That's the way to learn the most, that when you are doing something with such enjoyment that you don’t notice that the time passes.” - Albert Einstein.

Narrowband wavelengths of the light spectra in this image:

The Hubble Palette (HST)

Hydrogen-Alpha - 656.3nm

Oxygen-III - 500.7nm

Sulfur-II - 672.4nm

RGB Channel Mapping Ratio:

Red: 40% Ha + 60% SII

Green: 40% OIII + 30% Ha + 30% SII

Blue: 100% OIII

PixInsight PixelMath Formula Expression:

R/K: 0.4*Ha + 0.6*SII

G: 0.4*OIII + 0.3*Ha + 0.3*SII

B: OIII

Processing:

Pre-Processing and Linear workflow in PixInsight. PixelMath and Nebula Structure enhancement via Wavelets. Finished in Photoshop.

"Capturing Data is Science, but Processing it is Art".

Astrometry Info:

Annotated Sky Chart for this image.

RA, Dec center: 83.7624970537, -5.30247840247 degrees

Orientation: 1.2575903817 deg E of N

Pixel scale: 5.79732928062 arcsec/pixel

View this image in World Wide Telescope.

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

Martin

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A wide view of a section of the beautiful constellation of Orion, imaged in mid Summer in the Southern Hemisphere. Photographed with a standard (unmodified) mid-range Nikon D7000 DSLR camera and Nikkor 60mm f/2.8 ED lens (stopped down to f/4 for optimal optical performance).

This widefield view around Orion's Belt includes several beautiful Deep Sky Objects including The Great Nebula in Orion (M42), The Horsehead Nebula (IC434) and Barnard's Loop.

About Barnard's Loop:

Barnard's Loop (also known as Sharpless 2-276) is a huge Nebular shell, about 1,600 light-years away in the constellation Orion. It envelops a large part of the Orion Complex. Barnard's Loop is thought to have been formed by a series of Supernovae that occurred two to three million years ago. The ionized shell is part of an even larger molecular Hydrogen cloud, and is kept luminous by a group of hot young stars.

About the image:

This is the first test image that I shot with my iOptron SkyTracker Pro. I decided to get a SkyTracker so that I can use a regular old camera and lens to photograph wide angle shots of the sky while I'm busy imaging with my Telescope. It is a fairly inexpensive way to do long exposures of the night sky with standard photographic equipment that you already have.

Location:

The rural dark skies of the African Bushveld in the Waterberg, Limpopo Province, South Africa (on a very warm Summer's evening).

About the Star Colors:

You will notice that star colors differ from red, orange and yellow, to blue. This is an indication of the temperature of the star's Nuclear Fusion process. This is determined by the size and mass of the star, and the stage of its life cycle. In short, the blue stars are hotter, and the red ones are cooler.

Gear:

iOptron SkyTracker Pro.

iOptron Counterweight Kit.

Manfrotto 055PRO Tripod.

Manfrotto 486RC2 Ball Head.

Nikon D7000 DSLR (Unmodified).

Micro-Nikkor 60mm f/2.8D ED Lens.

Hahnel Giga T Pro II Wireless Timer Remote.

Tech:

Lights/Subs:

14 x 60 sec. ISO 3200 NEF Files (f/4).

Calibration Frames:

40 x Bias

30 x Darks

Pre-Processing and Linear workflow in PixInsight,

and finished in Photoshop.

Astrometry Info:

View the Annotated Sky Map for this Astrophoto.

RA, Dec center: 84.7497748101, -2.68699703478 degrees

Orientation: 10.6655683104 deg E of N

Pixel scale: 38.7303715915 arcsec/pixel

View this image in the World Wide Telescope.

Martin

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[Home Page] [Photography Showcase] [My Free Photo App]

[Flickr Profile] [Facebook] [Twitter] [My Science & Physics Page]

Aberkenfig, South Wales

Lat 51.542 N Long 3.593 W

Skywatcher 254mm Newtonian Reflector, Olympus E410 at prime focus. EQ6 Syntrek Mount.

36 frames used in final processing (12x60s, 14x50s & 10x40s all at ISO 800). Also 10 dark frames at 60s.

Processed with Deep Sky Stacker and final levels adjusted with G.I.M.P.

Although captured under what seemed to be cloudless sky, the seeing conditions and transparency were not at their best. The light pollution at my location is also presents a challenge. A fairly reasonable outcome with the equipment used.

The image displays some coma towards the edges. This is is one drawback of a parabolic f/4.8 Newtonian.

This was an experiment to see how PixInsight would handle combining images from different sessions shot at two slightly different focal lengths. I took several exposures between 270 s and 300 s from Joshua Tree, CA, on 2017-11-17, and I had some data from the same region of the sky from a March 2015 trip to Death Valley. After star alignment and image integration, the results looked decent enought to work with.

All data taken with an Nikon D80 with 18.0-135.0mm lens piggybacked on a Celestron Edge HD scope and Celestron CGEM mount. The Death Valley data was shot at a 22.0 mm focal length, and the Joshua Tree data at 24.0 mm focal length. All shots at ISO 1600.

Image size is 28.2° x 47.6°

Image center (J2000):

RA 6h 7m

DEC -1° 9'

I added another half hour of imagery to what I already had, so this image consists of 65 minutes of data. After shooting it this latest time, I realized that I hadn't been balancing my tracker correctly when shooting south, so when I image it again this fall, I hope to be more efficient with getting non-star-trailed 60-second subs.

Acquisition details: Fujifilm X-T10, Samyang 135mm f/2.0 ED UMC @ f2.0, ISO 1600, 65 x 60 sec, tracking with iOptron SkyTracker Pro, stacking with DeepSkyStacker, editing with Astro Pixel Processor and GIMP, taken Oct. 6 2019 and Feb. 27, 2020 under Bortle 3/4 skies.

Another collaboration with my northern buddy, Dave Williams, who once again kindly provided the Ha, which was used as luminance. I also layered in the M42 I did earlier this year to improve the colour. This again demonstrates just how much the ED80 leaves the 200p in its wake :)

RGB :

SW ED80/EQ5

Nikon D70 modded, Baader Neodymium filter

31 x 240secs iso 800, 30 x 8 secs iso 800 for the core (2 hours 8 minutes)

Guiding (RA only): Quickcam Pro4000/9x50 finderscope, PHD

Stacked in DSS and processed in CS5

Ha (Dave Williams):

10 x 600 secs (I hour 40 minutes)

250mm Hasselblad lens at f4

Moravian G2 8300

5nm filter

Hi,

Here is one of my first astrophotograph of the deepsky I took at prime focus of my newtonian telescope with my canon T3i camera (unmodded)

It is a 10-image-stacked picture of 30 seconds each.

Both staking and processing were made by a friend using PixInsight sofware. Thanks to him :)

It is actually an update of my previous version inwhich I had used Deep Sky Stacker freeware and lightroom. Click here.

So, how to find the difference between PixInsight and DSS/Lightroom ?

We clearly see the powerful process of PixInsight !

Thanks for reading ;)

Technical Cards :

10 x 30 secs

ISO 1600

800 mm

f/4

Canon T3i

+ 10 darks

Experimenting with some short exposure astrophotography, hoping it provides inspiration for beginners who may not have the budget for a tracking mount yet. This image was created by stacking multiple 2 second exposures taken with a 70mm refractor and 10 year old Canon 1100D on a static tripod.

200 x 2 seconds + 30 darks, stacked using Deep Sky Stacker.

Yes there is some texture in the background because you'll always get noise when you try to stack images that don't have a lot of data in them, but as a beginner I would have been so happy to have achieved these results, and to be honest I'm pretty happy with how this turned out now!

If you want to see the You Tube video where I talk you through this process, click here:

youtu.be/b_ArweQvE6o

An unguided/untracked view of the Great Orion Nebula (M42) taken with a 300mm zoom lens mounted to a Nikon D5100 DSLR. The base exposure time was only 1/3 second, although multiple images were taken and then combined ("stacked") to produce a higher-contrast and lower-noise result. This photo also captured M43 (small companion to M42) and a faint trace of the Running Man Nebula (NGC 1973/5/7).

This image is best viewed in the Flickr light box or at full size (press the "L" key to toggle the light box or click one of the following links):

Orion Nebula in 0.33 Seconds, View On Black

Orion Nebula in 0.33 Seconds, View At Full Size

Photographed on February 8, 2012 between the hours of 6:45PM and 7:06PM PST using a Nikon D5100 DSLR and a Nikkor AF-S 70-300mm 1:4.5-5.6 G zoom lens (ISO 3200, 1/3 second exposure x 512, 300mm at f/5.6). Image registration, integration (or "stacking," giving a total integration time of 171 seconds), and adjustments done with PixInsight v01.07.05.0779 (trial).

No camera tracking or guided was done to capture this image. In fact, that was the point of this exercise, to see what could be done without a telescope and without any tracking or guiding system (just an unmodified digital camera on a standard, fixed tripod).

I'm still waiting to try this subject from a dark location and without the nearly full moon breaking over the eastern horizon (the conditions that I had when I took the above picture, from my driveway and with significant light pollution given my near city-center location).

Lastly, it should be noted that you don't want to create a large number of pictures using techniques similar to what I have done here, since your camera has a finite limit on the number of shutter actuations that it will provide during its lifetime. It seems that modern DSLRs can provide in excess of 100,000 shutter actuations before needing repair (or breaking), so this exercise in relatively extreme image stacking may have used somewhat less than 1% of my camera's expected shutter life. That is to say, if you tried something like the above each and every day your camera might only last for a few months.

All rights reserved.

NGC 2024, IC 434 and the Horsehead Nebula, M42, NGC 1977 and on the right very light NGC 1909.

19x50 sec with nikon D90 mod., tokina 100mm f2.8 , 800 iso.

Tracked with minitracklx

It is one of the brightest nebulae, and is visible to the naked eye during winter months in the Northern hemisphere. Its distance from Earth is 1,344 light years. It’s estimated to be 24 light years across.

Taken in my back garden using an unmodified 5Diii on a star tracker 400mm focal length at F5.6.

Trying out the Skywatcher Star Adventurer Pro tracker.

Polar alignment with QHY PoleMaster.

I've fitted a ZWO miniscope and ASI120 mm s guide camera to the L bracket so will be able to guide in RA in the future. Didn't set that up for this image.

Fairly easy to adjust tracking alignment - some vibration and lost subs if I moved too close or walked near mount - may need a heavier tripod than my Manfrotto 055 - at least for backyard.

Taken with a modified Canon 80D with an IDAS D1 light pollution filter and a Samyang 135mm lens wide open at f/2.

40 x 50 second subs at ISO100.

Light pollution measured at 19.44 mag/arcsec2 - fairly poor for my site - maybe snow on the ground has affected that.

Session terminated by some cloud moving in - I like the idea of letting this tracker run for hours - my AstroTrac tt320x ag could only run for about 100 minutes before reaching end of timing screw.

90 x flat frames

90 x dark frames

90 x bias frames

Image processed in PixInsight 1.8.6 and Photoshop 2019 CC

This is a stack of nearly 100 photos of Orion's Nebula and the Running Man Nebula taken in the dark skies of Joshua Tree National Park, located in southern California. I'm fairly happy with the results but I need to work on my astrophotography post-processing skills.

The Great Nebula in Orion, M42 was visible to the naked eye and could be seen very well with binoculars. This nebula is "only" 1,344 light years away. In all my photos the Running Man Nebula (above the Orion Nebula) was invisible, but stacking nearly 100 pictures made it visible.

Stack of 97 exposures taken with a Canon 7D Mark II and Canon EF 400mm f/5.6L USM at 1 second, ISO 16,000 and f/5.6.

A quick shot of M42, the Orion Nebula, from the past weekend. I would have liked to have taken more exposures to stack, but some thin clouds started to come through: ending my imaging for the night. Still, for the limited amount of sub-frames, I'm pretty pleased with the result! Two 5-min stacked with the core of M42 from 2-min and 30s exposures. Please press L to view the nebulosity better.

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Please, no banners/photos/awards in the comments.

⇒ This wide-field image was taken with a telephoto lens set to 147 mm focal length on a motorized equatorial mount.

⇒ The total exposure time is 40 minutes, composed of a superposition of 20 pictures 120 seconds using the #DeepSkyStacker software.

⇒ This area of the sky is rich in nebulae. Besides, in this picture we can see (click on the high resolution image):

-> The famous Orion Nebula (M42) on the top left with its neighbor NGC 1973

-> Nebula Horse Head (IC 434)

-> Flame Nebula (NGC 2024)

-> Nebula M78

Technical details:

20 x 120 secs exposure time

F / 6.3 aperture

ISO 1600

147 mm focal length

Canon EOS 600D + Tamron 70-300 lens

Light enhancement with Lightroom software.

How do you find it ?

*********************/ French Translation \**************

Voyage dans le complexe d'Orion [Astrophotographie]

⇒ Cette image grand champ a été prise avec un téléobjectif réglé à 147 mm de focale sur une monture équatoriale motorisée.

⇒ Le temps d'exposition total est de 40 minutes mais il a été décomposée en une superposition de 20 photos de 120 secondes à l'aide du logiciel #DeepSkyStacker .

⇒ Cette région du ciel est très riche en nébuleuses. D'ailleurs, sur cette image nous pouvons voir (cliquez sur l'image haute résolution) :

--> la célèbre nébuleuse d'Orion (M42) en haut à gauche avec sa voisine NGC 1973

--> la nébuleuse de la tête de cheval (IC 434)

--> la nébuleuse de la flamme (NGC 2024)

--> la nébuleuse M78

Détails techniques :

20 x 120 secs d'exposition

F/6.3 d'ouverture

ISO 1600

147 mm de focale

Canon EOS 600D

I finally felt like I developed some of the skills I needed to try putting together this mosaic that I shot nearly 4 years ago. I had done the two areas separately, but I was having a lot of trouble getting levels of light even between them. The Orion Nebula (at the bottom) is significantly brighter than the Running Man Nebula (above it). There's also the subtlety of all the dust around this region, too. Balancing it all took several efforts, but overall this one came out OK.

3 panel mosaic shot from Death Valley on 2016-12-27; Celestron Edge HD 925 at f/2.3 with Hyperstar; Atik 314L+ color CCD camera; unguided; preprocessing in Nebulosity, compositing and processing in PixInsight, final touches in Photoshop.

The image spans 44' x 100'.

Taken from Oxfordshire, UK under Bortle 4 skies on the 1st December 2019

70mm William Optics refractor and Canon 1100D wtih light pollution clip filter fitted. Mount was an EQ5 Pro on a permanent pier, tracking (not very well!) but no guiding.

ISO-1600 for 2 minutes for most of the image, 30 x 2 minutes stacked with Deep Sky Stacker (No darks because I screwed up when I shot them!)

ISO-1600 for 15 seconds for the core, 80 x 15 seconds stacked with 30 darks using Deep Sky Stacker. Both stacked images were processed in parallel, then blended using a layer mask in Photoshop.

Processed using Photoshop CS2 with the RC Astro Tools and Astroflat Pro plugins, followed by final tweaks in Lightroom and Fast Stone Image Viewer

I love the Orion Nebula which is the middle "star" of Orion's Sword, but I also really love the regions around M42, which are also filled with interesting nebulosity. It's nice imaging this region with a small refractor because you can easily fit the whole of Orion's Sword into the field of view.

I wanted to carry on imaging all night long but my back pain became too bad then I ended up having seizures until 4am. So I'm pleased with the result given the total exposure time.

The Orion Nebula is one of the largest and brightest deep-sky objects that exists in our quadrant of the Milky Way galaxy. It is a star forming region that consists of gas and dust that is being excited and illuminated by hot, young stars near to the center of the nebula. Given any clear and relatively dark night during the winter (in the northern hemisphere) it can been seen with the naked eye as a fuzzy "star" in the constellation Orion (look for it as the middle "star" in the sword that hangs below the belt of Orion the Hunter).

Photographed on the morning of October 1, 2013 from a moderately dark-sky location using a 5 inch aperture, f/4.2 telescope and a Sony NEX-5N digital camera (ISO1600, a stack of one hundred and seventy-nine images each exposed for 30 seconds with an additional one hundred and forty-one images exposed for 8 seconds each, producing a total exposure integration time of approximately one hour and 48 minutes). Tracking for each of the exposures was performed by a Celestron CGEM mount (no manual or auto guiding, standard sidereal rate after All-Star polar alignment).

This is a straight RGB image with no narrow-band enhancements that was taken with an unmodified, APS-C format, consumer-grade digital camera (i.e. Sony NEX-5N).

To see a closeup of the central core of the nebula and the famous Trapezium star cluster you can view my post entitled "The Trapezium and the Core of the Great Orion Nebula (M42)" (LINK).

Image registration, integration, and adjustments done with PixInsight v01.08.00.1023 RC7 with final tweaks in Photoshop CS5 and Apple's Preview Application.

This photo is best viewed against a dark background (press the "L" key to enter the Flickr light box).

All rights reserved.

As some of you may know, I've been interested in capturing some deep space objects in my images and have been doing some testing with a couple of tracking devices. And after a lot of patience and testing, I'm happy to report that I've finally made some good progress. In-fact, you may have seen one of my composite images of Comet ISON a little while back. And while my tracker is really meant for wide-field astrophotography, I've gotten pretty good with it... to the point where I've been able to use even my telephoto lenses with impressive results.

Here, I really pushed my techniques and my gear to the limits with a composite image of a part of the Orion Constellation called the sword. I thought I did a pretty good job of capturing the colors & details in three nebula clouds including the Orion Nebula and the Running Man Nebula - a definite first for me!

There is a lot more to this post... see the rest of the backstory, the techniques, and get free wallpaper from www.coloradocaptures.com/orions-sword-winter-sky

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Desde muy pequeño siempre vi con admiración las estrellas que conforman el cinturón de Orion, considerándolas mis favoritas, pero hasta no hace mucho conocí que a su alrededor existen varias impresionantes "nubes de polvo y gas"

Ver por primera vez la Nebulosa de Orion, también conocida como M42, es algo extraordinario, con esos increíbles colores y formas, es algo que te deja sin palabras y que te hace apreciar que existe belleza mas allá de nuestro mundo y de lo que nuestros ojos nos permiten ver.

A un costado también pueden ver la Nebulosa del hombre corriendo o NGC 1977, a la que sinceramente no le encuentro esa forma.

This image, which was taken from Elgin, Scotland, shows NGC 1977, M42, M43 and NGC 1980 - i.e. ORION'S SWORD

Imaging equipment: Sky-Watcher 80ED, HEQ5 mount, Canon EOS 300D at prime focus, Astronomik CLS filter. Exposure details: Sub-frames of 900 Secs and 1000 Secs, taken on 28-29 Nov 2008; 600 Secs, 180 Secs and 60 Secs, taken on 4-5 Nov 2008: all @ f/7.5, ISO-800. Guiding equipment: Sky-Watcher 100ED, StarShoot Autoguider.

Sub-frames for the central part of M42 were taken on 21-22 Dec 2007 with an unguided Sky-Watcher Evostar-100ED Pro @ f/9 and Canon EOS 300D at prime focus. Exposure details: 1 x 30 Secs, ISO-1600; 10 x 20 Secs, ISO-800; 1 x 10 Secs, ISO-800.

Aberkenfig, South Wales

Lat 51.542 N Long 3.593 W

Skywatcher 254mm Newtonian Reflector, Nikon D780 at prime focus. EQ6 Syntrek Mount.

42 frames used in final processing.

15 x 30s @ ISO 1600

9 x 25s @ ISO 2500

6 x 25s @ ISO 2000

6 x 20s @ ISO 2000

6 x 20s @ ISO 1600

Also 18 Dark Frames

Processed with Deep Sky Stacker and final levels adjusted with Adobe Lightroom & G.I.M.P. Final image cropped.

Did not get satisfactory flat frames on this one, so I may re-visit this at a later date

Running Man Nebula or Sh2-279.

Skywatcher 200p, NEQ6 mount, Optolong CLS-CCD filter, Baader MPCC M3 coma corrector, ASI294MC Pro at -20C. 42 x 1 minute exposures at Gain 121, dithering every 5 frames, Offset 30, 20 dark frames, 40 flat fields, 40 dark flat frames.

Processed in APP, Topaz de-noise and Photoshop.

21/12/2020 Very Windy and few salvagable sub-frames.

A reprocess of my last post. Still a lot to learn! I found that the software I am using by default doesn't use the white balance stored in the RAW images, there is a check box tucked away. As a result of finding this I believe this version looks a lot more natural. I am using my Canon 40D which has now been modified for astrophotography, so as a result you have to use a custom white balance now.

Orion Nebula (M42)

Sometimes in astrophotography, we reprocess our images differently to highlight different features of the image. In this case, I reprocessed my data of the Orion and Running Man nebulae to bring out the dusty areas surrounding them.

I really like this version better. What do you think?

Orion's Sword, the region of sky below Orion's Belt includes the Orion Nebula (M42), Running Man Nebula (NGC 1977), the open cluster NGC 1981, and Iota Orionis.

Voted "Best Deep Sky Photograph" at 2010 RTMC Astronomy Expo.

HDR processing by my nephew Rob Johnson

Suggestion: View on Black, click on bighugelabs.com/onblack.php?id=4035159234&size=large&... then hit F11 key in a darkened room.

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M42 using T1i at iso 3200 on 6" Schmidt Newtonian. Autoguide by Pictor on CGEM mount

HDR processing by Rob , 0306=13s, 0307=78s, 0304=-296s

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Autoguider used: www.flickr.com/photos/edhiker/4017430558/

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m42hdr20091018_Sat74_Q80.jpg

The Running Man Nebula has been imaged at 2032mm focal length through an 8" SCT, using a full spectrum modded and cooled DSLR.

The image consists of the best subs exposed at ISO1600 for a total time of 2 hours and 54 minutes.

This Nebula designation is "Sh2-279" (alternatively S279 or Sharpless 279) and comprises three NGC nebulae, NGC 1973, NGC 1975, and NGC 1977 that are divided by darker nebulous regions. It also includes the open cluster NGC 1981. The brightest nebulosity is NGC 1977.

The Running Man Nebula is a HII region and bright nebulae that includes a reflection nebula located in the constellation Orion. It is the northernmost part of the asterism known as Orion's Sword, lying 0.6° north of the Orion Nebula.

Mounded, luminous clouds of gas and dust glow in this Hubble Space Telescope image of a Herbig-Haro object known as HH 45. Herbig-Haro objects are a rarely seen type of nebula that occurs when hot gas ejected by a newborn star collides with the gas and dust around it at hundreds of miles per second, creating bright shock waves. In this image, blue indicates ionized oxygen (O II) and purple shows ionized magnesium (Mg II). Researchers were particularly interested in these elements because they can be used to identify shocks and ionization fronts.

This object is located in the nebula NGC 1977, which itself is part of a complex of three nebulae called The Running Man. NGC 1977 ― like its companions NGC 1975 and NGC 1973 ― is a reflection nebula, which means that it doesn’t emit light on its own, but reflects light from nearby stars, like a streetlight illuminating fog.

Hubble observed this region to look for stellar jets and planet-forming disks around young stars, and examine how their environment affects the evolution of such disks.

Credit: NASA, ESA, and J. Bally (University of Colorado at Boulder); Processing: Gladys Kober (NASA/Catholic University of America)

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The Sword Region of Orion, M42 & M43 The Great Orion Nebula(Red), M43 is the Comma Shaped piece of Orion Nebula, also visible is NGC 1973-75-77 (3 part )Blue Reflection Nebula aka Running Man Nebula.

NGC-1981 is the Bright Blue Open Cluster near the Left edge. and the Brightest Star on the Right edge is Iota Orionis, a close Double Star, and above Iota is WDS 747 is another nice double star from the Washington Double Star Catalog. M42 & M43 is a Massive and Bright Stellar Nursery (Star Formation Region) in the Constellation of Orion. This image is of the Sword Region of Orion, which hangs down from Orion's Belt Stars for us Northern hemisphere observers. Beautiful View in any size amateur scope.

Modified Canon Rebel Xsi DSLR & Modified 5.5" Newt. Reflector scope, ISO 1600, 60 minute exp., AVX Mount, and QHY5IIL Auto-guider + Burgess 90mm Guide scope. Captured in Canon Utility, 4 min subs x 15 images Calibrated & stacked in Nebulosity, and Processed in Adobe CS 2015.

Captured at my Observatories at JBSPO in Yellow Springs, Ohio on 01--02-2016.

Best Regards,

John Chumack

www.galacticimages.com

From top to bottom:

NGC 1981 open cluster

NGC 1975 the Running Man nebula - a mixed reflection/emission nebula.

Dust clouds

M43 DeQuervain's nebula - emission nebula.

M42 - the Great Orion nebula.

This is a 2 panel mosaic:

Upper panel is 6 x 6 minute subs

Lower panel is 15 x 6 minute subs.

Initial processing and blending in PixInsight then some curves and high pass filter in Photoshop.

Orion is sinking into the west in the early evening now. I took the opportunity to capture a HDR version of the Sword of Orion with M42. Taken from Terlingua, Texas, at 2021-03-27 04:16 UT. William Optics RedCat 250/51 mm telescope, Optolong L-eNhance NB filter with Ha and Oiii, ZWO ASI 533MC camera cooled to -10C. 25 60" exposures and 40 120" exposures for 105' of total exposure.

Stacking and HDR composition in PixInsight. Noise reduction in Topaz DeNoise. Final crop and exposure in Photoshop.

NGC 1973, 1975, 1977 (also known as the Running Man Nebula) and the Orion Nebula, as well as the bright star Iota Orionis (ι Ori, ι Orionis, or Hatsya).

Together, these form 'Orion's Sword' in the constellation Orion.

45 one-minute manually guided exposures at ISO3200, plus fifteen ten-second exposures and ten five second exposures for an HDR blend of the Trapezium area.

A brave imaging run in biting cold. It was in the low 20s with wind chills into the teens.

Captured using a Meade DS2120 OTA piggybacked to a 10-inch Meade LX200 Classic. Camera was a Nikon D5500.

Exif data removed by way of stacking processes.

A sight of wonder since prehistory. In this HDR image I try to be true to the shape of the Orion nebula as seen in a small telescope. Taken from my driveway in Austin, Texas on 2020-11-17 09:20 UT. William Optics RedCat 250/51 mm telescope with a ZWO ASI533 MC Pro camera using an Optolong L-Pro light pollution filter.

Total exposure 104' with 10", 30", and 60" sub-exposures, f/4.9 at a gain of 101.

M42 was one of the first astronomical objects I ever tried to photograph. I attached my Nikon D200 to my 5" Meade Achromat, and took a single unguided 30 second frame at ISO 800. I knew nothing about darks and flats and stacking and such, but I was so proud of that image! Little did I realize what a challenge this object is, just because it's so bright.

This nebula is easily visible to the naked eye, even from within the town where I live. It's hanging down (from my northern vantage point) from Orion's belt, and it is one of the star factories nearest us. A multitude of stars are forming or have formed in this cloud of hydrogen. Four of them form an intensely bright cluster right in the middle of the brightest part of the cloud. The power of the radiation from those four stars has carved a cavity in the cloud. The blister of gas and dust around that cavity has "popped" to expose the fluorescing hydrogen inside.

NGC 1977 is another large star forming region near M42, above it in this image. It has been dubbed "The Running Man Nebula" for the shape of the reddish nebulosity at its center. In fact, this is simply an earlier stage of the same process that shaped M42. The dusty reflection nebula surrounding the interior cavity has just started to dissipate under the pressure of the powerful stars within. As a result, we can peek into its interior, glowing red with Hydrogen Alpha emission.

Photographically, M42 is notoriously difficult to capture. The brightest parts of the nebula are thousands of times brighter than the faintest parts. Multiple exposures of different lengths are required to fully capture the detail over the entire area. These exposures are then combined using a technique called High Dynamic Range (HDR) processing. Many HDR images of this beautiful nebula look pasty and flat. They lack the depth... the glow... that make them truly captivating. I've tried to avoid that with this image, sacrificing some detail contrast for the 'feel' of the brightness difference between the inner, outer, and extended envelope nebulosity.

One of the biggest challenges in the creation of this image involved the geosynchronous satellite band, which runs right through that region of sky. Dozens of satellite trails were present in the combined image, requiring a couple of hours of manual work to remove. Virtually every subframe had at least one satellite streak in it, and a lot of them had several. It's amazing how many geosynchronous satellites are up there.

This 38 megapixel image is my very first attempt at an HDR rendition. I combined exposures of 30 and 240 seconds from the Takahashi CCA250/Apogee Aspen 16M, 10 and 60 seconds from the Planewave CDK17/Apogee Alta 16M, and 10 seconds from the Planewave CDK20/SBIG STT8300M. The 441 subframes combined to create this image required 9.6 hours of imaging over 6 nights from November 7, 2013, to January 23, 2014.

The distance to the Orion Nebula has recently been geometrically determined to be 1,425±61 light years. At that distance, this image is about 58 light years across.

Image acquired at Prairie Sky Observatory and Sugar Grove Observatory, facilities of Twin City Amateur Astronomers (tcaa.us).

Running Man Nebula on the left