This image of the Orion Nebula was formed by blending narrowband (Ha, OIII, and SII) data using the Hubble palette. RGB image data was also used for most stars.

The Orion Nebula, also known as M42 and NGC1976, is a very bright diffuse nebula about 1,300 light-years from Earth and can be seen with the naked eye in the constellation of Orion. Four notable stars, known collectively as the ‘Trapezium’ can be seen in the brightest part of the nebula. Also shown is M43, also known as De Mairan’s Nebula, and the NGC1980 star cluster.

Total narrowband integration: 10.1 hours. Other RGB-only and RGB/NB blended images have also been prepared. To avoid duplicated Astrobin database entries, only narrowband acquisition details have been entered for this image. Nevertheless, the RGB details used for the stars are provided in text format below this description.

There is a very large difference between the brightest and dimmest parts of this nebula, making image processing a bit more complex to simultaneously show all/most elements.

The image was fully processed in PixInsight. The finalized picture was re-sampled by 120% for aesthetic reasons.

RGB acquisition details (used for the stars in this image, as well as separate RGB-only and RGB/NB blended images):

Astronomik Deep-Sky Blue Filter: 30x120" -20C bin 1x1

Astronomik Deep-Sky Blue Filter: 20x30" -20C bin 1x1

Astronomik Deep-Sky Blue Filter: 24x300" -20C bin 1x1

Astronomik Deep-Sky Blue Filter: 34x5" -20C bin 1x1

Astronomik Deep-Sky Green Filter: 31x120" -20C bin 1x1

Astronomik Deep-Sky Green Filter: 19x30" -20C bin 1x1

Astronomik Deep-Sky Green Filter: 24x300" -20C bin 1x1

Astronomik Deep-Sky Green Filter: 36x5" -20C bin 1x1

Astronomik Deep-Sky Red Filter: 30x120" -20C bin 1x1

Astronomik Deep-Sky Red Filter: 21x30" -20C bin 1x1

Astronomik Deep-Sky Red Filter: 24x300" -20C bin 1x1

Astronomik Deep-Sky Red Filter: 36x5" -20C bin 1x1

Total: 9.7 hours