The Orion Nebula (M42) is the most observed emission nebula in the sky, a spectacular stellar birthplace located some 1,500 light-years away in the belt of the most famous constellation of the winter evening sky. It is often photographed by amateur astronomers — so much so that we are almost numbed by seeing too many images of it.
This image, however, is different. Check out the superb detail in this shot by northern California astrophotographer Tony Hallas, a longtime friend and contributing editor of the magazine.
This may be the Orion Nebula shot to end Orion Nebula shots. To achieve a relatively wide field and superb, intricate nebular detail, Tony used a Takahashi 130 at f/7 and stitched a two-frame mosaic, shooting in January 2014 from Foresthill, California. He used an SBIG STX-16803 CCD camera, Astrodon Gen II filters, and a series of stacked exposures.
For full data, see Tony’s website link here:
http://astrophoto.com/WildOrion.htm
Enjoy!