Monoceros: The Riot of Light in Orion

This image captures the riot of colour and nebulosity that surrounds Orion’s belt and sword. You can see the 3 main stars of Orion’s belt in the left part of the image, namely Alnitak, Alnilam and Mintaka. Around Alnitak and in the centre of the frame we see the famous Horsehead nebula and Flame nebula, a bright pink Hydrogen emission nebula which has a globule of dark dust forming the silhouette of the nebula’s namesake. To the top right we have M42 the Great Nebula in Orion, this is one of the brightest nebulae in the night sky and is easily visible as Orion’s sword from light polluted areas. To the bottom left we see the blue and black reflection nebula M78 and in the very corner the beginning of Barnard's loop a huge expanse of faint hydrogen nebula that surround the entire constellation. The entire area is filled with dark dust, imagine this next time you look at Orion’s Belt how much stuff surrounds those stars.

Photographer: Ronan Hunt
Full Resolution: 3823x2867 pix, 2 Edition Jpeg
Image Credit: Ronan Hunt