ORION | M42

The Orion Nebula is a reminder that the universe is still busy making things. What you see in that soft violet glow is a cradle of stars, a place where gravity gathers ancient dust and gas and shapes them into newborn suns. The light from this nebula began its journey more than a thousand years ago—long before any telescope, long before any photograph—yet it arrives tonight with calm clarity, carrying news of a place where creation never really stops. In a way, photographing the Orion Nebula is like catching the universe in the act of breathing: you’re witnessing the moment where chaos becomes structure, where darkness gives way to luminous heat, where the raw materials of future worlds ignite. And the most humbling part is knowing that everything we are made of once passed through a place just like this—so when you capture the Orion Nebula, you’re not just pointing your camera outward, but also quietly tracing the origin story of ourselves.

Orion is the closest Star Nursery to our Solar System, about 1,344 light-years away. That’s why it’s one of the few nebulae that can be seen with the naked eye, glowing as a soft patch of mist in Orion’s sword. Its brightness comes from a cluster of very young, very hot stars (the Trapezium) that flood the surrounding gas with ultraviolet light, making the entire region shine.

I wasn't planning to process my Orion Nebula project just yet; I wanted to capture at least another night of RGB data. I didn't calculate it, but I estimate I have 2/3 of RGB UV/IR cut filter and 1/3 of dual narrowband data. This was more than enough to get way more data than my last attempt.

I'm sharing my new attempt, clearly way more data, and my previous attempt just for the sake of evolution comparison. Older one was taken in Bortle 8-9 with the Optolong L-pro filter in January 31st 2023 and was my first light with a cooled camera, same camera and FOV as this one by the way, just different cropping because the edges were very noisy in the old one.

20h 04 min total integration time
Sharpstar 61 EDPH II + 0.7 reducer @f4.5
ASI183MC PRO dedicated astrocamera
AM5 Mount
SVBONY UV/IR cut filter
SVBONY 7nm dual band filter
SVBONY 30mm f4 Guide Scope
ASI120MM mini guide camera with red filter
ASIAir mini
Bortle 4-5
Software: DeepSkyStacker > Siril > Starnet > Graxpert > Photoshop > Topaz Denoiser