M42 - The Orion Nebula
Sun Sep 24 2023
I’m still planning to get a deep image of this using my wide-field set up but that’s another month or 2 away. For now, I just wanted to get a quick view of things this morning and see how it could turn out. Thankfully this is an extremely bright object so it doesn’t require a ton of exposure time. I tried not to blow the core out as badly so the trapezium cluster is still just visible. I also elected not to use luminance at all here since it was overpowering the colors.
About this object
- Type
- Star Cluster with Nebulosity
- Constellation
- Orion (the Hunter)
- Distance
- ~1,344 light-years
- Apparent magnitude
- 4
- Apparent size
- 90.0′ × 60.0′
- Also known as
- Great Orion Nebula
- Catalogue designations
- M 42, NGC 1976
The Orion Nebula (M42) is the brightest diffuse nebula in the sky and one of the most photographed objects in astronomy. It is a vast stellar nursery where new stars are actively forming, visible to the naked eye as the fuzzy middle 'star' in Orion's sword.
Acquisition
- Antlia V-Pro Red 31 mm: 114 × 30s (57m)
- Antlia V-Pro Green 31 mm: 114 × 30s (57m)
- Antlia V-Pro Blue 31 mm: 57 × 30s (28m 30s)
- Total integration: 2h 22m 30s
Equipment
- Telescope / Lens: Celestron C8
- Camera: ZWO ASI1600MM Pro
- Mount: Celestron CGEM II
- Filters: Antlia V-Pro Blue 31 mm, Antlia V-Pro Green 31 mm, Antlia V-Pro Red 31 mm
- Guiding scope: SVBony SV106 60mm Guide Scope
- Guiding camera: ZWO ASI224MC
- Accessories: Celestron 0.63X SCT Reducer (94175), ZWO EFW 8 x 1.25″ / 31mm
- Software: Pleiades Astrophoto PixInsight
Astrophotography by David Joyce, AstroDavido.