A mosaic of the Belt and Sword region of Orion the Hunter, revealing the diverse and colourful array of nebulas in the area, all
A mosaic of the Belt and Sword region of Orion the Hunter, revealing the diverse and colourful array of nebulas in the area, all a part of a vast star-formation complex. The Orion Nebula itself, Messier 42, is below centre, overexposed here. But also visible are the large red Barnard’s Loop, at left, and the blue Witchhead Nebula, IC 2118, at right, illuminated by the bright star Rigel. The Horsehead Nebula is visible below the left start of the Belt of Orion. Above it is the pinkish Flame Nebula, NGC 2024, and above it the bluish M78 reflection nebula complex. This is a 4-panel mosaic shot Jan 1, 2016 from home on a very clear night, though with some sky gradients. Each panel is a stack of 5 x 3-minute exposures at with the Canon L-Series 135mm lens, on the filter-modified Canon 5D MkII at ISO 1000. The camera was tracking but unguided on the AP Mach One mount. Orion was on the meridian but even so there was a lot of difference in sky brightness between panel segments. Also, trails from geostationary satellites appeared in each frame, as Orion was then near the opposition point, due south at midnight. I eliminated these with a Median combine stack mode for each panel segment. Plus from my latitude southern Orion tends to sit in brighter sky gradients, so the lower panels were brighter and more sky fogged than the upper panels. All stacking and stitching in Photoshop CC 2015.
Size: 5400px × 4273px
Photo credit: © Alan Dyer / VWPics / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: ., 42, 2024, 2118, alnilam, alnitak, area, array, astronomy, barnard’, belt, blue, centre, colourful, complex., dark, diverse, emission, flame, horsehead, hot, hunter, ic, large, left, loop, m42, m78, messier, mintaka, mosaic, nebula, nebulas, ngc, orion, overexposed, part, photoshop, purple, red, reflection, region, revealing, rigel, saiph, sky, star-formation, stars, sword, vast, visible, winter, witchhead
