Celestial hemisphere:  Southern  ·  Constellation: Orion (Ori)  ·  Contains:  41 Ori A)  ·  41 Ori C  ·  41 Ori D  ·  43 Ori)  ·  Great Orion Nebula  ·  M 42  ·  M 43  ·  Mairan's Nebula  ·  NGC 1976  ·  NGC 1982  ·  Orion Nebula  ·  The star Mizan Batil II (θ2 Ori  ·  The star Trapezium (θ1 Ori A  ·  The star θ1 Ori C  ·  The star θ1 Ori D
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The Great Nebula in Orion, Andrew Lockwood
The Great Nebula in Orion
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The Great Nebula in Orion

Getting plate-solving status, please wait...
The Great Nebula in Orion, Andrew Lockwood
The Great Nebula in Orion
Powered byPixInsight

The Great Nebula in Orion

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Description

M42 is a stellar nursery about 1600 light years away. Possibly one of the most photographed objects in the sky, and bright enough that it's nebulosity was known to the ancients, although it's unlikely that they knew it was ionised gas. For that matter, it seems unlikely that the ancient Greeks thought that particular asterism was Orion's sword. Who hunts with a sword?

Although it is the brightest nebula in the sky, the large dynamic range causes it's own issues. Here I've combined a LRGB made from 30s exposures with some LRGB at 300s. I also acquired some S2 and H-alpha data, but haven't figured out what to do with that yet.

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The Great Nebula in Orion, Andrew Lockwood