A widefield view of Orion's Belt and Sword showing the complex of nebulosity in the area. The three Belt stars are at top (L to R): Alnitak, Alnilam and Mintaka, with the dark Horsehead Nebula (B33) below Alnitak. Above Alnitak is the pinkish Flame Nebula, NGC 2024. At bottom are Messiers 42 and 43, making up the Orion Nebula, with the bluish Running Man Nebula above it, aka NGC 1973-5-7. Above it is the star cluster NGC 1981. Messier 78 is just on frame at upper left. Numerous other bits of emission and reflection nebulas populate the field amid a backdrop of faint emission nebulosity. The stars around the Belt belong to the large star cluster Collinder 70. This is a blend of two stacks of images: 15 x 8 minutes through an IDAS NBX dual narrowband filter to bring out the faint nebulosity, and 15 x 4-minutes with no filter for the more natural star colours and colours of the Orion, Flame and Horsehead (IC 434) Nebulas. So a total of 3 hours of exposure time. I did not take shorter exposures for the Orion Nebula core. All were with the William Optics RedCat 51mm astrograph at f/4.9 and filter-modified (by AstroGear) Canon EOS R at ISO 3200 for the filtered shots and ISO 800 for the unfiltered shots. Taken from home January 22, 2023 on a rare clear winter night. Autoguided and dithered with the Lacerta MGEN3 autoguider. No darks or LENR employed. All stacking, alignment and masking in Photoshop. Luminosity masks with Lumenzia helped bring out the nebulosity, as did a mild application of the Nebula FIlter action in the PhotoKemi StarTools Actions set. Noise reduction with RC-Astro Noise XTerminator. The filtered set has had all the stars removed using RC-Astro Star XTerminator, so it contributed just the nebulosity, Stars come from the unfiltered set for tighter stars with more natural colours.
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 f/2.8 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.
This is a portrait of the main nebulosity in Orion around the Belt and Sword, including: the Orion Nebula itself (at bottom), aka Messiers 42 and 43; the Running Man Nebula above (aka NGC 1973-5-7); the dark Horsehead Nebula (B33) silhouetted in front of the bright nebula IC 434; the Flame Nebula (NGC 2024) above Alnitak; and at top left the reflection nebulas Messier 78 and NGC 2071. However, the entire field is filled with streamers and patches of emission and reflection nebulas. The three stars of the Belt of Orion are at centre, from L to R: Alnitak, Alnilam, and Mintaka. The large loose open star cluster Collinder 70 surrounds the centre star of the belt, Alnilam. The bright blue star cluster NGC 1981 shines above the Running Man. The field of view is almost 9° by 6°. This is a stack of just 11 x 4-minute exposures with an Askar FMA230 astrograph (230mm focal length at f/4.5), and stock Canon R6 camera at ISO 800. The camera was not modified and no filters were employed here. The field could have used more exposures but clouds and altitude prevented that! Some light haze on some frames added star glows. I did not take short exposures for the core of the bright Orion Nebula. Nebulosity is brought out in Photoshop using successive curves with luminosity masks generated by Lumenzia, and with applications of the Nebula Filter action from the PhotoKemi StarTools action set, and Enhance DSO from the Astronomy Tools action set. All alignment and layering was in Photoshop. Taken from home January 25, 2022. Autoguided and dithered with the MGEN3 guider, with LENR dark frame subtraction also applied to each frame in camera to eliminate the edge amp glow the R6 exhibits. It was about -5° C this night.
