The Orion Trapezium Revisited

To produce my recent Orion image I took some shots at only 1 and 5 seconds so that I might preserve some detail in the Trapezium stars of the core. I was pleased to see that I managed to capture the four largest core stars with some separation.

But Bob Stuart processed these stars even further to bring out more nebulosity and dust clouds and spotted that the A and C stars in the core (see diagram) had slight bulges on them. My DSLR and lenses couldn't resolve any better detail than this, but Bob believes them to be the much smaller E and F stars in the cluster (see diagram below), but I'm not sure.

Bob also suggests that the black spots close to the Trapezium may be proto-planetary discs, which are rotating discs of dense gas and dust surrounding a young newly formed star.

My photos need to be rotated to be compared with the diagram below - a rotated version is included at the bottom of this page.

Orion the Mighty Hunter Returns

As we move into Autumn and the skies are getting darker the constellation of Orion has started to reappear in the early mornings. Along with Andromeda, this has got to be one of my most favourite night sky objects and, unlike Andromeda, the constellation as as whole is very easy to see with the naked eye.

The nebula at Orion's centre is less easy to spot, and usually appears as just a faint smudge for most people.  Even through binoculars or a telescope, there is very little colour or detail to see.  But when photographed with a camera, this wonderful object is truly spectacular and it's a joy to see.

This is my first attempt at capturing the magic of Orion this 'season' and over the next few months I hope to get my best shots ever.