Celestial hemisphere:  Southern  ·  Constellation: Orion (Ori)  ·  Contains:  23 m Ori  ·  28 Ori)  ·  29 Ori  ·  30 Ori  ·  31 Ori  ·  34 Ori)  ·  42 Ori)  ·  44 Ori)  ·  45 Ori  ·  46 Ori)  ·  47 Ori  ·  47 ome Ori  ·  48 Ori  ·  48 sig Ori  ·  49 d Ori  ·  50 Ori)  ·  55 Ori  ·  56 Ori  ·  59 Ori  ·  60 Ori  ·  B33  ·  Flame Nebula  ·  Great Orion Nebula  ·  HD242827  ·  HD242885  ·  HD242959  ·  HD242990  ·  HD243001  ·  HD243003  ·  HD243088  ·  And 1385 more.
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Belt of Orion, Michel Makhlouta
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Belt of Orion

Getting plate-solving status, please wait...
Belt of Orion, Michel Makhlouta
Powered byPixInsight

Belt of Orion

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Description

The Belt of Orion is an asterism in the constellation Orion.

It consists of the three bright stars Alnitak, a triple star system, Alnilam, a supergiant star, and Mintaka, a binary star 90,000 times more luminous than the Sun. The stars are more or less evenly spaced in a nearly straight line, and so can be visualized as the belt of the eponymous hunter's clothing.

Hanging from Orion's belt is his sword, the Great Orion Nebula (M42). Other famous nebulae from this region are visible in this image, notably the Horsehead Nebula (IC 434), the Flame Nebula (NGC 2024) and Messier 78. Surrounding all that beauty is Barnard's Loop. Most of those objects lie between 1,200 and 2,000 light-years from Earth.

I captured this image on the same weekend while I was waiting for C/2022 E3 ZTF to rise high enough. In my mind, imaging Orion's region is always a practice run, until one wintry day, with the right equipment, conditions and skills, a perfect image is created.

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Belt of Orion, Michel Makhlouta