Orion Nebula (M42)

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Orion Nebula (M42)

[Public Domain] 1 Jan 2009 Dylan O'Donnell
CATEGORY : Astrophotography
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Welcome to the International Year of Astronomy 2009! To celebrate the new year the staff of the SkyLive remote telescope project allowed me to take control of the Celestron 14″ telescope at Grove Creek Observatory and expose the first image taken from the observatory for the Australian New Year – what an honor!

This year, make a point of viewing at least one astronomical object. Everyone has a favorite night-sky object, whether it’s the sun, moon, Venus, the International Space Station, or even the Full Solar Eclipse for 2009 (best viewed near the equator).

The image you are seeing here is a small portion of the Orion Nebula, the most famous and colourful nebula we have ever observed. Instead of using RGB to make this image, I used the Hydrogen filter for the red channel, Sulpher for green, and Oxygen for Blue. This is a close approximation of the “Hubble Pallette”. I also used a Luminosity filter as a luminosity layer. Some noise reduction and slight level adjustments made in photoshop but the colours come directly from the filters used.

Happy New Year everyone and welcome to the International Year of Astronomy 2009!

UPDATE This was posted in an Italian Astronomy News circular!

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