Orion and Horse Head Nebula
Top left : The Horsehead Nebula is approximately 1,375 light-years from Earth. Also known as Barnard 33 is a small dark nebula in the constellation Orion. The nebula is located just to the south of Alnitak, the easternmost star of Orion’s Belt, and is part of the much larger Orion Molecular Cloud Complex. It appears within the southern region of the dense dust cloud known as Lynds 1630, along the edge of the much larger, active star-forming H II region called IC 434.
Bottom right : The Orion Nebula, M42, is a diffuse nebula situated in the Milky Way, below Orion’s Belt in the constellation of Orion. It is one of the brightest nebulae, and is visible to the naked eye in the night sky. M42 is located at a distance of approximately 1,344 light years and is the closest region of massive star formation to Earth. The M42 nebula is estimated to be 24 light years across. It has a mass of about 2,000 times that of the Sun.
RIGHT ASCENSION
05h 35m 17.3s
DECLINATION
−05° 23′ 28″
DISTANCE
1,344 ly
This is one of the first astrophotography images I took, this is with a Nikon D810 and 500mm lens. A tracking mount is used to capture multi-minute exposures which rotates and the same speed as the Earth and therefore matches the apparent rotation of the stars. This results in a sharp image and no star trails.
Several hundred images were taken which are then stacked together to produce the final image.
