M42 – The Great Orion Nebula - Mike's Astro Photos

Nov.04 2010

M42 – The Great Orion Nebula

Its that time of year again and Orion the hunter is currently rising in the east just before midnight. Orion is home to several spectacular nebula the most famous being M42 – The Great Orion Nebula. M42 is a defuse nebula situated just below Orion’s belt. Coming in at 24 light years across and only 1,344 light years away from Earth, the great nebula is big enough and bright enough to see with the naked eye, but without optics, its not much more than a smudge located in the center star of Orion’s sword. This diffuse nebula is one of the brightest nebula in the sky and a fantastic sight in binoculars or a small telescope. Here’s a recent picture of the nebula, much better than my first.

The Great Orion Nebula - November 2nd, 2010

Photo Details:
William Optics FLT 98 / CGEM Mount
Canon 20Da Camera
SBIG STV Autoguider
12×3 minute ISO 400 exposures
Deep Sky Stacker
Photoshop cleanup

:Nebula

2 Comments for this entry

Mark
November 4th, 2010 on 9:10 pm
Great details. I didn’t know you got the Autoguider up and working. Was this taken with the mounting you waited so long for? Nice shot!
Mike Hankey
November 6th, 2010 on 2:20 pm
Thanks Mark. I’ve had the auto guider working for a while (ever since I realized you had to be in EQ mode to auto guide (Duh!)). Pic quality goes in and out based on polar alignment precision at the time along with other factors like focus, scope, weather & light conditions etc. This shot was taken on the tripod as I’m still waiting on the pier plate (should have it next week).

Thanks!

Mike