Nebula M42 in Orion 2021 (Stephen Heliczer FRAS)

Celestial hemisphere: Southern · Constellation: Orion (Ori) · Contains: 41 the01 Ori · 42 c Ori · 43 the02 Ori · 44 iot Ori · 45 Ori · De Mairan's nebula · Great Orion Nebula · Hatysa · IC 420 · Lower Sword · M 42 · M 43 · Mairan's Nebula · NGC 1973 · NGC 1975 · NGC 1976 · NGC 1977 · NGC 1980 · NGC 1981 · NGC 1982 · Orion Nebula · Sh2-279 · Sh2-281 · The star 42Ori · The star 45Ori · The star θ1Ori · The star θ2Ori · The star ιOri · Upper Sword · VdB44 · And 1 more.

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Nebula M42 in Orion 2021

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Nebula M42 in Orion 2021

Taken this weekend on the only two clear-sky nights we have had for months. With Orion now disappearing over the western horizon, I felt this could be the last opportunity to capture this for the last time this season, taken from my light polluted back garden in North London.

Hopefully it shows what can be achieved with relatively modest and lightweight equipment from a far less than ideal location. I can pick up the entire telescope/mount with one hand! Software used was Sharpcap and Astro Pixel Processor. PHD2 guiding allowed me to take deep 3 minute exposures using the Optolong L-Extreme dual-band filter, which also allowed me to separate and then re-merge the colours during processing.

M42 in Orion

Three sets of subs to capture detail in the nebula core, all processed separately and merged in PaintShop Pro

50 x 10 second, 40 x 60 second and 20 x 120 second subs, plus calibration frames, guided with PHD 2

Radian Raptor 61mm refractor

iOptron SkyGuider Pro (non go-to) mount

Optolong L-Extreme dual band filter

ASI294 colour CMOS camera.

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	Image of the day	Top pick	Top pick nominations	Total submitted
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	Image of the day	Top pick	Top pick nominations	Total submitted
Backyard
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Professional, scientific grade data
Mix of multiple sources
Other
Unknown

The “AstroBin Image of the Day and Top Picks”, or IOTD/TP, is a long-running system to promote beautiful, interesting, peculiar, or otherwise amazing astrophotographs, with a focus on technical excellence. Learn more.

Submitted The date and time when you submitted this image for IOTD/TP consideration.	...
Views by Submitters (available since September 19th, 2023) Every image is assigned to 50% of available Submitters. In the event that at least 80% of them don't view the image before its time in the IOTD/TP process expires, it's assigned to the other 50% of Submitters and the process begins anew.
Promotions by Submitters When 3 distinct Submitters promote the image, it moves on to the next stage of the process: evaluation for Top Pick status. This requirement, in addition to anonymization of images and distribution to only a subset of them, prevents biases and ensures that the best images are selected.
Promotions by Reviewers When 3 distinct Reviewers promote the image, it moves on to the next stage of the process: evaluation for IOTD status.
Early dismissal Staff members have a lot of images to inspect on a daily basis, and they can dismiss images if they believe they don't meet the requirements for IOTD/TP selection. If an image is dismissed 5 times, it's removed from the process. This streamlines the process and ensures that any bias present in promotions could be overruled by other staff members.

Status	Advanced success
Started	...
Astrometry.net job	4268625
PixInsight job	2RHYWKAXEHQI7Y9IT8ZOM9H5VHM1NQK4
PixInsight queue size	n/a
PixInsight stage	n/a

RA (center)	05h35m01s.16
RA (top/left)	05h30m07s.77
RA (top/right)	05h32m15s.73
RA (bottom/right)	05h39m55s.87
RA (bottom/left)	05h37m45s.94

Dec (center)	-05°18′04″.2
Dec (top/left)	-04°05′07″.7
Dec (top/right)	-06°52′45″.8
Dec (bottom/right)	-06°30′53″.3
Dec (bottom/left)	-03°43′15″.5

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Nebula M42 in Orion 2021

Nebula M42 in Orion 2021

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Nebula M42 in Orion 2021

Nebula M42 in Orion 2021

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