The Jewels of Orion

For me, this is my grail image, the image that I look back on with pride and was the first image I produced in the pano framing that I love.

This image won me The Best Newcomer at the Astrophotographer of the Year Awards in 2019 which I remember fondly, as it was incredible to meet so many accomplished astrophotographers that night but it also filled me with immense pride to win an international award at such a prestigious competition.

As the name suggests as a newcomer when taking this I was inside my first full year of astrophotography and was still using entry kit that I was all bought second hand. A month prior to getting this dataset I had made my first dark sky visit and was blown away by the difference dark skies made. Having had my eyes opened I planned this image for my next visit and prayed for clear skies.

Mention Orion to any astrophotographer and you'll notice a glaze come over their eyes, we love it. Orion has it all and it has it in spades, Orion is just loud and brash, where many targets in the night sky are very dim and need gentle teasing out, Orion has targets that punch through the sky in a celestial riot.

In the centre of Orion many of the best targets, the jewels if you will, lie in close proximity to Orion's belt. The 3 bright stars that any astro novice can locate in the sky.

Starting on the left we have a slither of Bernards Loop, a river of red Hydrogen alpha that encompasses the outer limits of the whole constellation, it's an important part of Orion so it's nice to have a glimpse in this scene.

To the right of this lies M78, a reflection nebula, what appears to be two snow balls of light, this is actually two stars surrounded by dust, as the light from the stars is reflected and blocked this target is created and up close makes for a truly incredible spectacle.

The centre of the frame includes the blue supergiant star Alnitak, which sits snuggly between the orange Flame Nebula and the deep red blanket of Hydrogen alpha that includes the Horsehead Nebula. The Flame is beautifully named as it really could be sat on top of a candle and not look out of place. This is a combination of strong UV from Alnitak interacting with Hydrogen creating the orange cloud, dust blocking some of this out creates the uncanny flame appearance. The Horsehead Nebula is also created by dust lying in front of a vast cloud of deep red Hydrogen Alpha to create a black horse head shape.

Moving to the top right we get blues and pinks to go with all the red and orange as we encounter the Running Man Nebula and the Great Orion Nebula, these nebulae are both areas of Hydrogen alpha but also very strong in Oxygen 3 emissions which gives the blue/cyan colours. The Orion Nebula is incredibly bright, a stellar nursery, a huge dust cloud that is condensing down to create new stars, this is visible to the eye with almost any small telescope or binoculars.

Away from the main targets lies a vast dust cloud that fills almost the rest of the scene this is the Orion molecular cloud complex. There are very few areas of "empty" sky in the constellation of Orion which is what makes it such an incredible target.

The Technical Details
This 2 pane panorama is comprised of RGB data obtained from a Bortle 3 dark sky site.

60x180s RGB stacked in APP, processed in PixInsight and Photoshop.

Kit
Canon 450Da ISO800
Canon EF L 70-200mm f/2.8 at 200mm f/3.5
SkyWatcher Star Adventurer