Orion Nebula — M42

The Orion Nebula is the closest large star-forming region to Earth and one of the most photographed objects in the sky. It's visible to the naked eye as a fuzzy patch in Orion's sword — but a telescope reveals what's actually there: a cavern of ionized gas 24 light-years across, lit from within by the Trapezium Cluster, four massive young stars whose radiation is sculpting the surrounding cloud.

This is an SHO + RGB composite — narrowband data for the nebula's structure combined with broadband color for natural star colors. Four hours per narrowband channel (hydrogen, sulfur, oxygen) plus one hour each in red, green, and blue. The combination gives you the chemical detail of narrowband with the aesthetic of natural color in the stars.

Technical Details

• Object: M42 — Orion Nebula
• Distance: ~1,344 light-years
• Telescope: 80mm refractor @ 600mm FL
• Filters: SHO narrowband + RGB broadband
• Integration: 15 hours (4h×3 NB + 1h×3 RGB)
• Location: Victoria, BC