This is the Orion Nebula (also known as The Great Nebula in Orion and M42). It is a large star forming region about 1500 light-years away from us in our galaxy, the Milky Way. The ultra-violet light from the hotter stars is ionizing the gas in the region causing it to glow in the colors you see in this photograph. This photograph is a combination of nine that were taken while tracking the stars and combined by averaging them together to reduce the background noise produced by the electronics in the camera.
Photographer: Rick Scott
Date: January 16, 2005
Camera: Canon EOS 20D digital camera
Lens: Home-made 10 inch f/4.63 Lurie Houghton Telescope
Mount: Losmandy G-11 equatorial
Exposure: 9 x 8 seconds
Camera Mode: ISO 1600 RAW
Software: PixInsight 1.8 and Adobe Photoshop CS6 for RAW conversion and image processing
Updated: May 6, 2015