The Great Nebula in Orion Photo

Photographer’s Note

The mad scientist, yours truly, took a quick break from my National Western Stock Show series and took a 1500 light year journey (with my telescope) to the 35 light year wide Great Nebula in Orion (the great winter constellation in the Northern Hemisphere). This huge emmission nebula is located in Orion's belt and is visible to the unaided eye. This is the crown jewel of the emmission nebulas in the Northern Hemisphere and is a glorious sight even with a small telescope. The red hydrogen gas, as seen in this photo, is invisible to our eyes. The hydrogen-alpha (H-alpha) spectrum of light, that much of the hydrogen gas clouds in the universe comprise of, are in this narrow band width which can only be captured with film and digital cameras.

This massive nebula is referred to as a "stellar nursery". The four visible emerging stars in the center of this nebula are called the Trapezium. These hot new stars heat up and ionize the nearby gases and create this luminosity much like a neon light. When observed through a large telescope this mass of gas and dust looks very much like an approaching hail storm. We can see the grey clouds and the illuminated pale green gasses (the O3 gas) which look like bright green diffuse lights, like that of the aurora borealis. This monster of a nebula is also called M42. The "M" numbers that you see space objects referred to were cataloged by the great 18th century French astronomer, Charles Messier. Charles Messier and his rich diletantes were busy with their hobby of "comet watching" using their telescopes. Charles Messier wanted to do his fellow comet chasers a favor and identify diffuse space objects so that they wouldn't be confused with comets. Little did he know that his Catalog of Messier Objects would be world famous with astronomers today and if you go to a star party some evening and you hear astronomers talk about M42, M38, etc. you can thank Mr. Messier.

I have been an amateur astronomer since I was ten years old and believe it or not this is the FIRST astrophoto that I have ever taken. Talk about procrastination! This is a pretty good shot for a beginning astrophotographer, but I have much to learn about this complicated process. I can see that the stars are starting to drift from an inaccurate polar alignment of the telescope's mount. I will talk in more detail about astronomy and telescopes some other time. Maybe Trek Earth should include a new category called "Trek Space".

emjleclercq, shevchenko, Greg1949, jjcordier, romanaa, dincmen, atlantida, fulvio52, Floydian, PixelTerror, jwmunro, Bruno40, AROBN54, Didi, melmcree, Paolo, zmey, gunbud, Wanda1, sevy, plimrn, japiey has marked this note useful

Critiques | Translate

jjcordier (25226) 2008-01-26 23:18

Stan
Très belle photo de la nébuleuse d'Orion dont on admire parfaitement les détails et les couleurs. Le suivi est très bon (les étoiles sont bien rondes!). Quel appareil d'observation as-tu utilisé? Une très belle photo d'astronomie!
Amicalement
JJ

romanaa (2551) 2008-01-26 23:43

Hello Stan,
you have really wide range of interest and knowledge - from ballet to astronomy. Beautiful photo. Pictures of space have always fascinated me and it is important to pay attention to things that are over us. and it provides me even a kind of relief - problems? what are they compared to Space.
Best wishes
Romana

dkeus31 (26365) 2008-01-27 1:12 [Comment]

Show Comment

atlantida (2323) 2008-01-27 3:21

These kind of shots miss on TE, we usually see shots of the moon and that's so boring. This one is a good astronomical shot, like taken from the NASA gallery and how u described the whole process of how those lights are created is wonderful. I've seen the last two pages of your TE photos, this one is very different, new series will be very refreshing:)

Gordana

fulvio52 (8314) 2008-01-27 3:34

Hi Stan,
I'm a complete ignorant on the subject (I can tell an handful constellations and a few stars, after which I'm lost...) but I find this a most interesting shot. Fascinating!
Due to above-mentioned ignorance, I wouldn't know how to rate this picture from a technical POV if my life were depending on it, but I like what I see and that's good enough for me. On top of that : your note is brilliant.
Altogether : more than worth a smiley!
You have a great sunday, buddy.
Catch up with you later,
Fulvio.

Floydian (30970) 2008-01-27 4:36

Hi Stan,
I am fasicated by the sky and all that is above us. M42 is cleary visible here but not in all the glory as you show us here. I would really like to take such a picture myself, i would be really proud if i can make such a reuslt as you show us here...truly wonderful.
Of course Hubble made some stunning pictures from Orion, but for an amateur this is high class...well done, i like it a lot.
Regards, Henk

[2]

PixelTerror (86839) 2008-01-27 4:39

Hi Stan,
Are you sure the location was Denver ??? I can't recognize the skyline ;-)
For sure you offer us here a very different image, I'm not specialist in astrophotography so I can only comment on the visual impact and I like it a lot, I wonder what the purple light reflets on, can't be clouds ???
Have a nice day JY

jwmunro (6255) 2008-01-27 5:22

Hello Stan -

This quit a departure from your terrestrial images and like those down to earth it is spectacular. This was a very long exposure as the star are no longer pins of light but orbs. But, that is to be expected when shooting the night sky. This is so different from what is normally found on TE I would have expected 3-4x the comments by now. Well done and presented. Was this taken with you small Celestron?

Thank you for sharing.

John

Bruno40 (6442) 2008-01-27 5:45

Wow Stan,
I didn't know that besides being a good photographer you are also an astronomer. This photo is very interesting, very good quality. I read you note and reply to JJ, and see that it is not that simple. Excellent job!
You might like my last post where I talk about ALMA.
Excellent work, out of this world!!
Jorge

AROBN54 (10789) 2008-01-27 8:32

Aha, Stan,
NOW I am reeeeally envious!! :)) What a magical shot! I knew this could be done, but I didn't know the result would be so incredible. I am just amazed by the clearness of the winter sky and you have done a marvelous job showing it. This is just awesome!! Many thanks and warmest regards,
Shelly

melmcree (2261) 2008-01-27 10:27

Hey Stan,

I've always been intrigued by astronomy and I even took it in College. Although I thought we were going to look at planets it was more about how to tell what the gas was 5 trillion light years away. Way over my head but we did get to use the University telescope and I was amazed to be looking at Jupiters eye and it wasn't in a photo but in real life.

This is the first photo I have seen on TE of this sort so you should get major bonus points for setting the precedent.

Well done,

Mel

Paolo (40755) 2008-01-27 12:41

Hi Stan, amazing view, with good quality and amazing tones too for a not easy view.
thanks, ciao

gunbud (28161) 2008-01-27 18:36

Hi Stan,
I have learned alot from your informative note as well as being treated to this first time look at the night sky. An excellent array of colors and a nice bit of mad science with the color explosion seen in the middle of your fine image.
Regards, Tom

Wanda1 (11015) 2008-01-27 20:50

Hi Stan,
Wow! Thats incredible that we can see everything so clearly. There is nothing more beautiful than a night sky full of stars. Very interesting note too.
Regards
Wanda

sevy (13952) 2008-01-28 0:28

Hello Stan,

You can note imagine how I like this shot. First because Orion is one of my favorite constellation and second because I tried 2 years ago to take exactly the same shot with a reflex with a 200/2.8 fixed on a small telescope. It was not very successful and I learnt how it could be technical to take those kind of photos.
I hope you will propose some more photos Pleiades for example and one day, perhaps I will take time to practice astrophoto seriously.
Did you push the cursor for the saturation or is it "real" color?

Yves.

Didi (36442) 2008-01-28 3:04

That's great Stan !
Very good picture and interesting notes.
But something is missing
I 'am very curious to know about your conditions.
What focal lens used ? How many ISO speed ?
Do you used a tripod with a special engine for compensation the earth rotation ?
I just read the answer to our fellow Cordier
Next time the Pleiades ?
Cheers.

ayansadhu (1499) 2008-01-28 5:07

Stan Dear,
you explore so many things with such precision that I just would love to explore you my friend...this is a very good shot of the universal mystery with excellence...well done, I just feel proud to befriend you :)

zmey (7282) 2008-01-28 5:22

hello, stan

i do not know much about astronomy photos, just that it takes loads of a patience, heck-load of sophisticated equipment and good knowledge of the star maps.

that aside, this seems a fantastic photo to me. i love the reddish effect of the hydrogen gas. great detail on the nebula too. quite a successful first attempt if you ask me. do i understand you correctly? you made this shot when you were 10?

thanks for sharing, friend. and keep them coming. your notes too. i would love to learn more about this topic.

cheers,
kristaps

ps. i can see the star-drift too. does your telescope path self-adjust to the rotation of the earth?

plimrn (19710) 2008-01-28 8:15

Stan, there are no words to express the impact this photo has on me. The closest I can come is that it is like a butterfly of light; and that is a lame description. Your note is fascinatining as well. I've always wanted to see the sky in more detail but my deficits in the area of spacial perception make telescope use exceptionally frustrating. I can see the answer is others photographs. I'm off to buy a book. HLj, Pat

Greg1949 (8519) 2008-01-28 16:06

Stan,

This is sort of a new direction for TE but maybe we could just have a division for it, Trek Extraterrestrial... As you know it is a great shot, looking forward to seeing more like this.

Greg

shevchenko (10072) 2008-01-28 22:11

Hi Stan,
Interesting composition shooting a space objects from earth, distinct color saperated the dark background and the colourful nebule, an unusual posting on TE, thanks for sharing.
Hope to see more space photos.
Ally

gary91 (15321) 2008-01-28 22:28

Hello Stan,
Great picture to be posted on... TrekUniverse :o)
This technique is fascinating and has certainly a lot of difficulties to be overtaken. For a beginning, if I was sure to get the same kind of picture, I would do it tommorow !
You achieved a fantastic shot of M42 here and all I can do is admire this beauty.
One more talent that you demonstrate us !
Have a nice day.
Best regards, Christian

emjleclercq (14506) 2008-01-28 23:15

Very nice red color over the very dark background. The feeling which comes out form such a picture is of course that of immensity, and reminds us than we are just a microbic planet travelling in the universe...

All the best,

Emmanuel

japiey (9521) 2008-01-29 9:36

Dear Stan,

Everytime when I reach your gallery, there's a surprise... Having read about your love for astronomy, this shot is the awaited one... Great shot.. Is this really your FIRST astro photo ? Really admirable !!!!
I agree with your suggestion "Trek Space", that would be a great site....
Wishes for you...

jean paul

jaywalker (12302) 2008-02-26 14:02

Hi Stan, A magnificent photo of this wonderful phenomenon, great to see something a little different, very good colour & a brilliantly captured image, kind regards Wilson.

zeynepe (9362) 2008-04-14 22:04

Hi Stan,
It is fantastic, one of my dream, one of my favorite :) While I was searching the stars in TE , I noticed this photo and it is the best:)
Best regards,
Zeynep Erek

Photo Information

Copyright: Stan Obert (scobert) (5333)
Genre: Places
Medium: Color
Date Taken: 2008-01-26
Categories: Nature
Camera: Hutech modified Fuji S3 Pro, Televue 85mm F/7 APO Telescope, Vixen GP-D GEM (Astro Mount)
Exposure: f/5.6, 30 seconds
Details: Tripod: Yes
Photo Version: Original Version
Date Submitted: 2008-01-26 21:51
Favorites: 2 [view]