The color richness of the constellation Orion is always fascinating. The red supergiant Betelgeuse, (α Ori) and the blue giant star Bellatrix (γ Ori) are already impressive with the naked eye. To the Inuit, the appearance of Betelgeuse and Bellatrix high in the southern sky after sunset marked the beginning of spring and lengthening days in late February and early March. The two stars were known as
Akuttujuuk meaning "those (two) placed far apart", referring to the distance between them, mainly to people from North Baffin Island and Melville Peninsula in Canada. [
Wikipedia]
However, a deeper look through the lens of the astrophotographer reveals a busy neighborhood with a rich background of red hydrogen nebulae like the Lambda Orionis Ring (depicted partially at the top of the image) and Barnard's Loop (depicted partially at the bottom of the image). The entire region is embedded in the dust of Orion's Molecular Cloud, which by a beautiful accident, appears to provide a dusty link for the two bright stars of Orion. The link begins from Barnard's Loop and LDN 1622, "The Boogeyman" dark nebula towards Betelgeuse, and the blue reflection nebula vdb 49 (or LBN 894) on top of blue giant ω Orionis.Towards the top-right part of the image lies vdB 38, a "double personality" reflection and emission nebula, which adds a small beautiful twist in this region of the sky.
Note: This image was down-sampled by a factor of two, to counteract for the low tracking quality present in the source data.
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