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The Great Orion Nebula M42, Terry Hancock

The Great Orion Nebula M42

The Great Orion Nebula M42, Terry Hancock

The Great Orion Nebula M42

Description

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to All

183 individual frames make up this final image which I captured in January and December 2012 from my back yard observatory in Fremont MI, consisting of LRGB, H-Alpha, OIII and SII filters for a Total Exposure time of 17.8 hours.

The constellation of Orion is home to many treasures, including the Orion Nebula seen here. A small part of the immense Orion Molecular Cloud, M42 is perhaps the most studied extra-solar object in the sky.

It is so very close to the Earth, only 1350 light-years, that this star forming region has opened the door to our understanding the processes that create stars and planetary systems. Only 24 light-years across, The Orion Nebula contains at least 2000 newborn stars with many still forming.

Camera: QHY9M monochrome CCD cooled to -30C

Optics: Thomas M. Back TMB 92SS F5.5 APO Refractor

Mount: Paramount GT-1100S German Equatorial Mount (with MKS 4000)

Image Aquisition Maxim DL

Stacking and Calibrating: CCDStack

Registration of images in Registar

Post Processing Photoshop CS5

Comments

Histogram

The Great Orion Nebula M42, Terry Hancock