The Orion Nebula (also known as Messier 42, M42, or NGC 1976) is a diffuse nebula situated in the Milky Way south of 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 1,344 ± 20 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 2000 times the mass of the Sun. Older texts frequently refer to the Orion Nebula as theGreat Nebula in Orion or the Great Orion Nebula.

The Orion Nebula is one of the most scrutinized and photographed objects in the night sky, and is among the most intensely studied celestial features. The nebula has revealed much about the process of how stars and planetary systems are formed from collapsing clouds of gas and dust. Astronomers have directly observed protoplanetary disks, brown dwarfs, intense and turbulent motions of the gas, and the photo-ionizing effects of massive nearby stars in the nebula.

Imaging telescopes or lenses: Celestron C8 XLT
Imaging cameras: Canon eos 450D
Mounts: Skywatcher AZ EQ6 GT
Guiding telescopes or lenses: Baader Planetarium Scopos 66ED f6
Guiding cameras: MagZero Qhy5L II
Focal reducers: Celestron 6.3 focal reducer
Software: Deepsky Stacker, PHD Guiding 2, Adobe Photoshop CC (64 Bit)
Resolution: 2048×1836
Dates: Nov. 2, 2014
Locations: Terrazza al centro di Roma
Frames: 60×90″ ISO1600
Integration: 1.5 hours
Darks: ~20
Flats: ~20
Bias: ~20
Avg. Moon age: 9.41 days
Avg. Moon phase: 70.94%
Temperature: 11.00
RA center: 83.800 degrees
DEC center: -5.423 degrees
Pixel scale: 0.802 arcsec/pixel
Orientation: 83.612 degrees
Field radius: 0.306 degrees

Аuthor: Gabriele D’Orazio

Austophotography of the day  SPONLI, 16.11.2014