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DoomWillFindYou โ Orion Nebula Complex
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Published: 2008-01-22 09:10:56 +0000 UTC; Views: 22684; Favourites: 393; Downloads: 3999
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Description
The entire constellation of Orion is a star making factory, and the heart of the activity is centered around the Sword - the three "stars" below the hunter's famous belt. In fact, only one of the stars in the Sword is just a star (Nar Al Saiph, top left), while the others consist of the Great Orion Nebula (M42) and the stars of the Running Man Nebula (NGC 1977). All three are enmeshed a deep crimson sheet of ionized Hydrogen, with sprinklings of greenish oxygen and bluish reflection nebula around the main components.243 minutes total exposure time. Equipment: Losmandy G11-G, Takahashi Epsilon 130 (430mm f/3.3), SBIG ST-4000 XCM.
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Comments: 67
i used your pic here to make my logo
check it out
[link]
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Fantastic photo !!! Could you give us some juicy details?
Single photo exposure time, iso etc.
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No problem! I used A Losmandy G-11 Gemini tracking mount to keep me on target, and the telescope I was shooting with was a Takahashi Epsilon 130 (430mm f/3.3 hyperbolic astrograph). The camera was an SBIG ST-4000 XCM 4.2 MP color CCD camera - no real ISO setting, but it's roughly ~ISO 6400 equivalent while the camera's cooling system gives a noise level closer to ISO 200-400. I shot 12 exposures of 20 minutes each and 6 exposures of 30 seconds each to mask in the highlights. Stacking the exposures was done in MaxIm DL, and processing and masking was done in Photoshop CS2.
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Thanks for the reply. Great gear and even greater photo. One quick
question, are you using only Losmandy G-11 for tracking without an
autoguider? Im new to astrophotography, so this question might be
dumb
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Not at all! The SBIG ST-4000 XCM camera has a built in 2nd CCD for autoguiding. I was autoguiding through this shot, though I had to stop halfway through to flip the mount over to the other side of the sky and reacquire the guide star. That caused the slight misalignment of the diffraction spikes on the brightest stars.
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You could actually took a photo of a nebula!?
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Yep, but it requires the kind of gear shown here: [link] I had to shoot 2 hours on one side of the mount as Orion was rising and then flip to the other side and recompose the shot to get the remaining 2 hours while Orion was starting to set.
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Yes, although I'm not quite as happy with it as I used to be. The color is good, but the image is a little soft. Here is my latest take on the nebula with better equipment: [link]
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wow o___o I just cant believe how you have done this. I mean, you have to have huge and expensive things to make this?
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spectacular photograph.. just makes you wonder what kind of things are out there!
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I've made a quick calculation of your equipments, it cost you around $10k to produce such a beautiful image. I wonder if I could do the same, only with a lower budget.. hmm.. let say, 1/100th?
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That's pretty accurate as far as equipment cost. My new mount and camera together with my second scope bring my current equipment setup to closer to $20K, but it's taken me 7 years of buying, selling, and trading gear to get the setup I have now.
If you can find up a good EQ mount with a 6" scope like this [link] used for around $500-600 and an older Canon DSLR for $300-400 you could take fairly good pictures for less than $1000 US. This [link] was taken with a similar setup.
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Wow, you must be really enjoy it. 7 years is a long time, while I am just having my 9th month observing the night sky.
Astronomy, and astrophotography as well, are not favorite subjects in my country. So I guess it would be hard to find a used scope. And the new one is so expensive for a student like me. Btw, I already have two scopes in my room, Powerseeker 114EQ and Powerseeker90 EQ. Do you think it suitable to take pictures of DSO?
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I think it is - possible - to do photography with either scope, but the mounts are the weak points. Even with a tracking motor (you will have to by this separately), no wind, and careful balancing and alignment you will probably be lucky to get 30 seconds without tracking error. You will have to take a large number of 30 second images with a digital camera and stack them using software into a single image. With images this short, your best bet is with a CCD camera like a Meade DSI II as it is much more sensitive than a DSLR (though has much fewer pixels), and DSLR's are too heavy and won't focus easily with either scope. This will require a computer to run the CCD camera and software to process the image. Not easy, but doable - the setup I mentioned above would be much easier.
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hey ok i know i should have asked u before, but i used this pic for this one [link]
i really hope u dont mind
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Don't worry about it!
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Its not the WHOLE constellation, just the nebula itself. Unlike other constellations like the Big Dipper the stars have no real effect on each other, the pattern we see in Orion is simply a coincidence of our position in space.
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[link]
Actually, if you discount Betelgeuse and Rigel as outliers, most of the stars in Orion came from a couple localized OB associations and have at least some tenuous connection with the HII region that covers the whole constellation.
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Wow, this is amazing. I loved to look at stars eves since I was just a wee little girl. ^^ Great capture.
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God, these images in your gallery are amazing. It makes you want to dive into the picture if it wasn't for the fact that you know you'd die in like five seconds. You caught such nice color!
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Thanks, and you're right: if the radiation didn't kill you, then the 20,000 degree C ionized gas along the shock fronts would. An emission nebula is not a safe place to hang around.
It sure is pretty from a safe distance, though!
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Man, outer space has always scared me! Especially with all of this new solar from the sun 2012 crap.
I mean I don't really think too big of a deal of the world ending, but if it ends in us melting to death, that's a bit over the top. xD
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WoW, your Telescope must be pretty good, i just started to get myself into Astronomy. But im already have my own telescope 
Anyways. Awesome Picture!
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Thanks. What telescope do you have, if you don't mind me asking?
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Iยดve got a Skywatcher 150/1200 EQ-3-2.
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Very nice! A 150mm refractor is an excellent first visual scope, although the mount might be a little light for it on a windy night. I started with a 70mm refractor and then jumped to a 6" Schmidt-Newt after 3 months when I couldn't see anything in the little scope.
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