Celestial hemisphere:  Southern  ·  Constellation: Orion (Ori)  ·  Contains:  Great Nebula in Orion  ·  M 42  ·  M 43  ·  NGC 1973  ·  NGC 1975  ·  NGC 1976  ·  NGC 1977  ·  NGC 1980  ·  NGC 1981  ·  NGC 1982  ·  The star 42Ori  ·  The star 45Ori  ·  The star θ1Ori  ·  The star θ2Ori  ·  The star ιOri
M42 Orion Nebula, Chris Howard
M42 Orion Nebula
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M42 Orion Nebula

M42 Orion Nebula, Chris Howard
M42 Orion Nebula
Powered byPixInsight

M42 Orion Nebula

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Orion Nebula (M42) in the SHO Hubble Palette - I have been thinking about different ways to represent false-color imaging for deep sky objects, and I've been keeping more of that abundant hydrogen green in the mix when doing SHO images, where we map Sulfur, Hydrogen, and Oxygen bandpasses to Red Green Blue (RGB). Because hydrogen is--by a wide margin--the most abundant element in the universe, and many of these nebulae are HII Regions (vast expanses of interstellar atomic hydrogen that's ionized), there ought to be way more green in SHO images than we normally see. It's become standard to go heavy on a rust red and deep blue, with most of the green removed. All of these color choices are esthetic choices. The images I'm posting come from the data from three separate filters, Ha, OIII, and SII, so in a sense there are no incorrect color levels--well, within reason.

I do see a lot of color (LRGB) imaging with a target like M42, and with corresponding reds and browns of the bandpasses on the red end of the spectrum--heading off into infrared. Most of my shots of Orion Nebula from past years has been in RGB with a luminance layer.

In this one I toned the green way down until I'm just getting a nice hydrogen green cast over everything.

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M42 Orion Nebula, Chris Howard