Ha 14 x 1200 second, 1x1 bin
Ha 8 x 20 second, 1x1 bin (core)
Ha 8 x 3 second, 1x1 bin (core)

Captured in hydrogen alpha light, the Great Nebula in Orion is a prolific stellar nursery of tangled gas clouds and interstellar dust. To the left of M42 in this image, and separated from it by a wide dark lane of wrinkled folds of dust and gas is NGC 1977. Popularly known as the Running Man Nebula, it also is a favorite target of astrophotographers. Lying about 1500 light years away from earth, the Great Nebula in Orion is the brightest diffuse nebula in the night sky, easily visible to the naked eye from a moderately dark sky site.

To capture the full dynamic range of M42 it was necessary to take, in addition to long exposures needed to reveal the faint areas of the nebula, a series of short exposures of varying lengths to correctly expose the bright core region. These different exposures were then layered and blended together in Photoshop to reveal the full extent of detail hidden in the nebula. For the above shot a total of eight (8) each core exposures of 3.0 and 20 seconds were taken and layered with the 1200 second exposures.