M42- The Orion Nebula

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Object Data: The Great Orion Nebula (M42, NGC 1976) and NGC 1977 to the north (left in this photo) are located in the 'Sword' part of the constellation of Orion, just below the Eastern-most of the three stars that comprise Orion's belt. As well as being the brightest, M42 is perhaps the most famous and most photographed nebula in the night sky.  The famous comet hunter Charles Messier catalogued it in October 1764. Approximately 1,500 light years distant, M42 is a very active and turbulent cloud of gas and dust and an important star forming region of particular interest to astronomers. There are many hot young stars (most notably the Trapezium stars) which fuel the dense swathes of surrounding gas, causing it to ionize and produce the red emission glow. M42 has a particularly complex range of of emission sources as part of it's spectrum, as well as a strong component of reflected broadband light, which probably accounts for the wide range of visible colors. 

Date: September 06
Location: My driveway in Elma NY
Telescope: Takahashi FSQ 106 at f/5
Autoguider: SBIG ST-4
Camera: Canon Modified 350XT 

Exposures: 11 Images at 600 second.  Core detail from - 10 at 60sec and 10 at 30 sec.

Notes: Images were aligned, calibrated and stretched using Image Plus.  A core layer mask was created from the shorter exposures and applied in Photoshop.  Final adjustments, color balance and sizing were done in Photoshop.  

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