The Orion Nebula complex consisting of M42, M43 and the reflection nebula area known as the Running Man Nebula, NGC 1973-5-7. NGC 1981 is the blue star cluster at top north edge. North is up, though in the sky from Australia where this was shot the object appeared upside down compared to this northern-centric view. This is a 3-exposure stack to preserve details in the bright core while bringing out the faint outlying parts. It is a stack of 4 x 1 minute + 4 x 5 minutes + 4 x 15 minutes, all at ISO 400 with the Canon 5D MkII (filter-modified) and Astro-Physics Traveler 105mm apo refractor at f/5.8 with the 6x7 field flattener. Images were aligned and masked in Photoshop CS6 using Refine Mask. An HDR stack did not work and produced odd artifacts. Images had to be manally stacked and masked. Shot from Timor Cottage, Coonabarabran, Australia, December 12/13, 2012.
The Orion Nebula, Messier 42, one of the brightest nebulas in the sky, glowing brightly like an island amid the much fainter clouds of stardust and gas that pervades the region. The bright young stars at the core of the nebula (here overexposed) light up the nearby gas clouds. The area is also filled with clusters of hot blue stars, such as NGC 1981 at top and NGC 1980 at bottom. Just above the main mass of the Orion Nebula is the blueish “Running Man Nebula,” the reflection nebula NGC 1975. Some faint parallel streaks runnign horizontally across the image are trails from geostationary satellites that did not completely subtract when stacking the images in Median Combine mode as each frame had trails. This is a stack of 10 x 6 minute exposures with the TMB 92mm apo refractor at f/4.4 with the Borg 0.85x field flattener/reducer and the filter-modified Canon 5D MkII at ISO 800. Taken from New Mexico, Nov 27, 2014, U.S. Thanksgiving Day.
Messier 44, the Beehive or Praesepe star cluster in Cancer, through the 105mm Astro-Physics Traveler apo refractor with the Hotech field flattener for f/5.8 and in a stack of 11 x 4-minute exposures at ISO 800 with the Canon 6D MkII camera. Taken on a slightly hazy night on March 25, 2019, thus the natural star glows – the cluster is not surrounded by nebulosity! However, the sky is clear enough that some of the very faint IC, UGC, and PGC galaxies in the field show up. Most are 15th to 17th magnitude. I’ve punched up the star colours with a star mask. Stars tightened with StarShrink filter. Diffraction spikes added in post with Astronomy Tools actions.
