The constellation of Orion has been an iconic figure in the winter night sky for millenia and for numerous cultures. Its famous 3 star ‘belt’, and the surrounding stars that make up the great hunter’s body, include equally famous names such as Bellatrix, Betelgeuse & Rigel.
If you look below Orion’s belt, even with the naked eye and under light polluted skies, you’ll see a small grouping of stars that are often described as his “sword”. That asterism is actually the nebula pictured here. At 1,344 light years, it’s the nearest star forming region to our solar system and it sports an enormous cloud of hydrogen, oxygen and other particles that are being lit up by the energetic young stars formed in its core.
Many astronomers and astrophotographers consider this an easy beginner target because of its size and brightness. Orion is easy to see and shoot, but that extreme brightness also makes it a nightmare to edit and process evenly.
This was captured from light polluted Bortle 8 backyard using an 80mm refractor, an ASI2600MM cooled astro camera and 3nm narrowband filters.
Photo by: @north_stargazer
