Astronomical observations #8 : Orion Nebula (M42)
Hello! Observations of deep-sky objects, we will start with M42. This is the brightest nebula in our sky, visible to the naked eye under a dark, rural sky. It is located in the constellation of Orion. It is about 1350 light-years distant from Earth. This object is really worth seeing!
A photo of the Orion Nebula with a long exposure time
By BryanGoff link [CC BY-SA 4.0 license]
Under the dark sky, with the naked eye, we can see only a misty spot, but with binoculars we can see its true, nebulous nature. The brightness of the observed nebula is +4 mag, and its angular dimensions are 85' × 60', which means it occupies in the sky as much as 4 discs of the moon. Thanks to this, you don't need a large magnification here. The 6'' (150 mm) telescope and the village distant from the big cities by a minimum of 30 km allows you to see this beautiful nebula like on the simulation below. As I said in amateur telescopes, the colors are only visible on planets! Deep sky objects have too little surface brightness so that our human eye can see colors in real time. The photo from the beginning of the article is the result of astrophotography, i.e. a photo with a long exposure time, the camera collects the dim light of the nebula even for a few hours! Then, beautiful colored objects appear in the picture. Observers are black and white views as below, but believe me it looks amazing!
The Orion Nebula in an amateur telescope
By Bob Familiar from Sudbury, MA, USA link [CC BY-SA 2.0 license]
.jpg){kind=link}
At a magnification of 30 - 50 X, we will see a swirling, nebular cloud in the shape of outstretched wings, full of bright stars. Large telescopes over 12'' (300 mm) and black sky like in Bieszczady Mountains in Poland will reveal the huge size of the nebula and all its weak elements. I wish you such views. I hope these tips will help you. I encourage everyone to start your adventure with astronomy!
Greetings to lovers of Astronomy!
Sources:
Orion Nebula
Nebula
and my knowledge...
All rights reserved by @astromaniac 2018
Being a science lover i like the article. Keep posting such valuable articles .
Thank you very much! I try to create high-quality content.
Very good article, keep up this work!
This post has been voted on by the steemstem curation team and voting trail.
There is more to SteemSTEM than just writing posts, check here for some more tips on being a community member. You can also join our discord here to get to know the rest of the community!
Hi @astromaniac!
Your post was upvoted by utopian.io in cooperation with steemstem - supporting knowledge, innovation and technological advancement on the Steem Blockchain.
Contribute to Open Source with utopian.io
Learn how to contribute on our website and join the new open source economy.
Want to chat? Join the Utopian Community on Discord https://discord.gg/h52nFrV
Great photos, sadly my only sky watching these days is through my PSVR.
I'm slowly turning into Sheldon Cooper.
Great post @astromaniac
The Orion Nebula is the object which my “astrofever” started 😊
If you need pictures for future articles, you can find me in the steemSTEM discord group “KevinT” 😉
M42 - The great Orion Nebula is a real showpiece. Even though you don't see the vivid colors like you do in photo's you can still see much of the detail with your own eye. It also holds up pretty well when there is a bit of light pollution.
Good write-up @astromaniac .
Thanks. Exactly, I often watch M42 from my a suburban family home. However, under the dark sky this nebula shows its true size.