The Orion Nebula (M42)
Processed to include shorter exposures for detail recovery
No special editing for bright regions, leading to whited-out region
Image Details:
The Orion Nebula is a favored object to both visually observe and photograph due to it being bright and detailed. While most nebulae in the sky appear grey to us due to our eye’s poor color sensitivity in dark conditions, this object is an exception and may appear as a subtle and pale green through larger telescopes (as the color response of the human eye peaks in what we interpret as green). As it is so bright, taking exposures with a camera can lead to an uncommon problem in astrophotography, and that is that a large portion of the nebula’s brighter core will quickly white out and lead to a loss of detail. This problem is often corrected by taking a second set of shorter exposures to isolate the brighter detail, then blend them into the longer exposures where this detail is lost, thereby artificially adding higher dynamic range (HDR) to the final photo. I have included 2 versions of it here, one with HDR editing, and the second without.
The Orion Nebula is about 1,400 l.y. away and is an active stellar nursery, meaning it is a large collection of Hydrogen gas (about 24 l.y. wide) which is forming new stars - the Hubble Space Telescope has observed hundreds of new solar systems in various stages of formation as well. This area is a great example of the different kinds of nebula Astronomers see as well. The magenta areas are caused by excited Hydrogen atoms emitting a few different wavelengths of light from the Balmer series, notably Hydrogen alpha and beta (red and pale blue, respectively). The blue areas which surround this are reflecting starlight and are blue for the same reason as our atmosphere - blue light is the color which is most efficiently scattered. Finally, the darker brown areas are regions of space where the gas and dust are blocking visible light almost completely (though more stars would be visible in these areas in longer wavelengths such as Infrared).
This was shot as a 4 panel mosaic or panorama, with each panel totaling about 1.5 hours of exposure
Equipment:
Celestron C8 SCT (calculated 1118mm Focal Length) using F/6.3 Reducer
Canon T3i (Astromodified)
Hypertuned Celestron CGEM-II
Exposures:
One-Shot Color: 364 x 60” (Total: 1h, 31m per panel, or 6h 4m total)
One-Shot Color: 12 x 15” (Total 3m)
Misc Details:
Processing Software: PixInsight
Taken from: Wichita, KS, Bortle 5
Capture Dates: 30 December, 2024