M42-10-01-14-WEB-enhanced

The fabulous Orion nebula (not that this does it any justice) M42. The nebula is around 1300 light years from Earth and is roughly 20 ly across. It is estimated to contain 2000 the mass of the sun and is our closest stella nursery. The core is lit by newly born bright and very hot young stars. The nebula to the upper left is known as the Running man nebula. These can be seen as fuzzy smudges in the middle part of the belt of the Orion constellation.

Image consists of 10 x 30 second exposures + 10 60 second exposures plus a little data from some 5 minute exposures that didn't come out to well. Dark frames to match (don't ask), stacked in Deep sky stacker and processed in Photoshop CS6.
Read less