Celestial hemisphere:  Southern  ·  Constellation: Orion (Ori)  ·  Contains:  Flame Nebula  ·  Great Orion Nebula  ·  IC 420  ·  IC 423  ·  IC 426  ·  IC 430  ·  IC 431  ·  IC 432  ·  IC 434  ·  Lower Sword  ·  M 42  ·  M 43  ·  Mairan's Nebula  ·  NGC 1975  ·  NGC 1976  ·  NGC 1977  ·  NGC 1980  ·  NGC 1981  ·  NGC 1982  ·  NGC 2023  ·  NGC 2024  ·  Orion B  ·  Orion Nebula  ·  Part of the constellation Orion (Ori)  ·  The star 31Ori  ·  The star 42Ori  ·  The star 49Ori  ·  The star Alnilam (εOri)  ·  The star Alnitak (ζOri)  ·  The star Mintaka (δOri)  ·  And 5 more.
Getting plate-solving status, please wait...
The Orion Complex - Mosaic, Sean Liang
The Orion Complex - Mosaic
Powered byPixInsight

The Orion Complex - Mosaic

Getting plate-solving status, please wait...
The Orion Complex - Mosaic, Sean Liang
The Orion Complex - Mosaic
Powered byPixInsight

The Orion Complex - Mosaic

Equipment

Loading...

Acquisition details

Loading...

Description

The Orion Complex - Mosaic

We live in a minor spiral arm of the Milky Way Galaxy, and this is our neighbouring star manufacturing region.

The region’s name is the Orion Complex, and it is dominated by ionised hydrogen gas(the red dusty clouds). Over the past million years, the gas clouds attracted and collapsed, forming thousands of stellar objects, including the famous Orion Nebula and Horsehead Nebula.

Three incredibly bright stars occupy the left side of the image, showcasing the famous Orion's Belt (also known as the Three Kings or Three Sisters). They are bright and blue because they are newly born and massive. Among them is a blue supergiant called Alnitak - the brightest class O star in our night sky. It will live a relatively short life and die with a violent supernova explosion, forming either a black hole or a neutron star. In cosmic terms, that's the equivalent of our neighbour’s son playing with explosives and blowing up on our faces.

(The total integration time of this image is 23 hours, containing both LRGB and Ha data. The data was collected from Heaven's Mirror Observatory in Australia through Telescopelive, which I processed using Pixinsight and Photoshop)

Comments

Sky plot

Sky plot

Histogram

The Orion Complex - Mosaic, Sean Liang