DESCRIPTION: Discovered in 1610 by Nicholas-Claude Fabri de Peiresc, M42 is approximately 1600 light years from earth, the span of its gas clouds are several hundreds of light years across, and its magnitude is 4.0. M42 is a winter time object for North America, and is one of the most photographed object in the sky even if it is cold out during the exposures. The Orion nebula is located in the constellation Orion and is just below Orion's belt (three star that form a straight line). At a dark location you can see M42 as a bluish haze.
LOCATION: Raleigh, North Carolina
DATE: 11/27/98 11:43PM
SCOPE: 10" Meade LX200 f10
Camera: Sbig SFT-8300M
EXPOSURE: 10x30sL, 10x30sR, 10x30sG, 10x30sBNOTES: This was one of the first images taken with my new CCD camera. The exposures are short in order to resolve the trapezium (four stars in the middle of the image), being this was done at f10, I didn't get the whole nebula, but I hope to start using a field flattener with this setup soon.