Jeffrey Phillips Freeman's Photography

This is my very first non-moon space shot. I hope you all enjoy it and comment!

This is a shot of the Orion Nebula (NGC 1976 / The Great Nebula in Orion / M42) taken on November 12th 2010. This shot also includes a faint wisp of De Mairan's Nebula (NGC 1982 / M43). The shot was taken with an EQ-6 Mount, no Autoguider, and an 800mm focal length, 8" Aperture f/4 Newtonian Telescope using my Canon Rebel T1i as an imager. I used a 3x barlow without an eyepiece. The majority of the shot is the result of 6 stacked 30 second 3200 ISO shots. A stack of 15 additional shots were used on the Trapezium star cluster in the center. This shot was also post-processed to improve contrast and light levels. The primary goal was to show the detail of the inner core of the Orion Nebula.

If you'd like to see a charted version of this shot (with many of the dim stars labeled) then check out Orion Nebula - Charted, also check out this chart of just the major stars: Orion Nebula - Common Names.