Photographing the Great Nebula in Orion

🖊️ 🔖 astronomy 💬 0

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The winter skies bring new treasures. The Great Nebula in Orion, also known as Messier 42, or just the Orion Nebula, is one of the brightest nebula in the night sky located in, you guessed it, Orion. The nebula is actually visible to the naked eye: to find it look at Orion and locate the 3 “stars” that make up his “sheath”. The middle star is not a star, it is the nebula.

Being so bright, M42 is one of the most photographed objects in the night sky so it was just a matter of waiting for it to be high enough for us to shoot at Cabrillo College. We took a series of 5 minute exposures, and after a bit of processing this is the result. It is a bit out of focus, but strikingly beautiful nonetheless.